VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Heavy snow in northern Japan caused transport chaos over the holiday weekend - 

More than 100 domestic flights in Japan were grounded on Sunday (Dec 26) due to heavy snow in the northern and western parts of the country, Japan's two biggest airlines said.

ANA Holdings had halted 79 flights as of 4pm local time (3pm Singapore time), affecting about 5,100 passengers, said Hiroaki Hayakawa, an operations director for the airline.

Japan Airlines Co had cancelled 49 flights as of 4pm local time, affecting 2,460 passengers, a representative with the airline's operations division said.

Worldwide, thousands of flights have been cancelled over the Christmas weekend because of the rapid spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

Japan, which tightened border controls to counter the threat from Omicron, has reported only about a dozen cases of community spread of the new variant and 231 total Omicron infections, including overseas arrivals, according to the health ministry//CNA

FILE PHOTO: People wearing face masks walk past the headquarters of Chinese central bank People's Bank of China (PBOC), April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang - 

China's central bank has vowed to promote healthy development of the country's real estate market, saying it will safeguard the legal rights of home buyers and better satisfy their reasonable living needs.

The statement from the People's Bank of China (PBOC), made following its fourth-quarter monetary policy committee meeting on Saturday, is the latest sign that Chinese regulators are marginally easing curbs on the property sector to prevent a hard-landing.

Echoing China's annual Central Economic Work Conference held in early December, the PBOC said it will prioritise economic stability, amid an increasingly severe external environment and the unrelenting global pandemic.

"The PBOC...turned more cautious on its growth outlook, indicated an intention to use broad and targeted policy tools to support the real economy in a more pro-active manner, and on the margin eased its tone on the property sector," said analysts at Goldman Sachs in a note on Sunday.

"We expect the central bank to inject more long-term liquidity via RRR cuts and various lending facilities, on-budget fiscal expenditures to be more supportive to growth compared with 2021, and local governments to ease property policies at local levels."

The PBOC said it will keep its monetary policy flexible and appropriate, and liquidity reasonably ample. It will strengthen support to the real economy, with a bias toward small companies.

The central bank reiterated that it will deepen reforms of the forex market and increase the flexibility of the yuan's exchange rate while guiding companies and financial institutions to be "risk neutral"//CNA

Virtual Join press conference on omicron spread Monday (27/12/21) -  

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment (Menko Marves) Luhut B. Pandjaitan, and Minister of Health Budi G. Sadikin again held a press conference on the results of the PPKM evaluation on Monday, (27-12-2021). The main topics he explained in this virtual press conference is about developments in the prevention and treatment of Omicron Variants.

"Until now, there have been 46 confirmed cases of Omicron in Indonesia, almost all of them originating from overseas travelers. The rest are officers at Wisma Athletes," said Coordinating Minister Luhut. Meanwhile, he said that as of last Sunday (26-12-2021), the spread of Omicron in the world is expanding. "It has been detected in
115 countries in the world with total cases reaching more than 184,000," he said.

With this development, Coordinating Minister Luhut encouraged parents in areas that have started Covid-19 vaccinations for their children, to immediately bring their children to be vaccinated. "We still have to be careful, because data in other countries shows cases of children have increased because of Omicron," he said. The precautionary principle, according to Coordinating Minister Luhut, is important to maintain even though data from other countries shows that the Omicron variant causes much lower mortality than the Delta variant.

In addition, which is no less important, he also invites the entire community not to travel abroad for holidays. On the other hand, he encouraged the public to take vacation trips within the country only to prevent the transmission of the Omicron Variant and to accelerate the acceleration of domestic economic recovery. "Domestic tourist attractions are no less beautiful than those outside, so I beg you to postpone traveling abroad for the sake of us together," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

Furthermore, to respond to the increasingly widespread spread of the Omicron variant, Coordinating Minister Luhut emphasized that the entrance to Indonesia will continue to be tightened, both from land, sea and air. The quarantine of foreign travelers (PPLN) for 10-14 days continues to be tightened. The government has prepared anticipatory scenarios to deal with the surge in arrivals of international travellers which is expected to occur early next year.

"There should be no request for dispensation for things that are not necessary except for example for medical purposes or other important matters," said Coordinating Minister Luhut regarding tightening quarantine after arrivals from abroad.

In addition to quarantine, Coordinating Minister Luhut also said the government was preparing Juanda Sidoarjo Airport as an alternative gateway for foreign arrivals. "We continue to coordinate quickly, for example, such as evaluating the readiness of Juanda Airport as an alternative entrance and meeting the logistical needs of all PPLNs who are quarantined at homesteads," added Coordinating Minister Luhut.

The government's decisive steps to prevent the entry of the Omicron variant have been able to keep Covid-19 cases at a low level. Until now, there are still no visible signs of a new wave due to the Omicron variant. Hospitalization rates and death rates are also still showing signs of being quite under control. But we still have to be vigilant. Monitoring the development of Covid cases is carried out continuously up to the city district level and the enforcement of health protocols must still be carried out by the entire community.

"The tightening of community activities will continue to be carried out when they exceed a certain threshold by taking into account daily cases, as well as cases of hospitalization and death," added Coordinating Minister Luhut.

The government will continue to strengthen _testing_and _tracing_ to identify potential cases spreading quickly. The reason is, many of these Omicron variants have been identified as OTG, so tracing is an important key. "Lockdown measures at the micro level like what we did at Wisma Atlet can be implemented if local Omicron transmissions are detected through this method," he added.

Then, the overall achievement of vaccination has also shown good numbers. Coordinating Minister Luhut said that the achievement of vaccination doses 1 and 2 in Java-Bali had reached more than 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively. "But there are still some areas where dose 1 vaccination is below 50 percent. Let's continue to push this number to maximize the level of community immunity," said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

On the same occasion, Minister of Health Budi G. Sadikin explained the four main tactics in dealing with this variant, namely health protocols, surveillance (3T), vaccination, and treatment. "Don't go abroad first, it has been proven that this variant was brought from abroad and many people are infected because they have traveled from abroad," he stressed. Specifically regarding quarantine, Minister of Health Budi strongly requests that PPLNs comply in order to prevent 270 million Indonesians others contracted the Omicron Variant.

Then, he also asked the public to remain obedient to health protocols and use the Peduli Protect application because there are still many who are not disciplined in implementing these preventive measures.

Then, to carry out rapid detection at the gates of foreign arrivals, Minister of Health Budi explained that the government would use new technology in the use of PCR which can detect the Omicron Variant. "We also purchased a new genome sequencing, which will enter early next year and will be widely distributed throughout Indonesia," added Minister of Health Budi.

Closing the press conference, Coordinating Minister Luhut invited all Indonesians to stay safe so that the number of cases remains low and there are no new waves. "Collaboration of all elements of the nation, reminding each other, praying and trying together, and not being selfish with each other is our key to solving this pandemic problem," he concluded//VOI-NK

Map of earthquake distribution in the fourth week of December 2021. (ANTARA/HO) - 

The Earthquake Center of the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) -Medan Office has recorded 27 earthquakes that occurred in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra in the fourth week of December 2021.

"Towards Christmas 2021 and New Year 2022, the BMKG recorded 27 earthquakes in North Sumatra and Aceh between December 17 and December 23," the agency's researcher, Marzuki Sinambela, said in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra Province, on Sunday.

The seismic activities in Aceh and North Sumatra in the fourth week of December 2021 occurred in the Megathrust Zone and some of them were spread over several areas of the Sumatran Fault segment.

Based on records for a week in Aceh and North Sumatra, there had been 23 earthquakes with a small magnitude scale or below magnitude 4.0, and four others with magnitudes of between 4.0 and 5.0, he said.

Referring to the depth of seismic activities during the week, the agency recorded 24 shallow earthquakes under 60 km, and three earthquakes at depths between 60 and 300 km, he said.

Meanwhile, the agency's analyst, Endah Puspita Sari, explained that during the past week, there were 18 earthquakes that occurred on land and nine others at sea.\

"Of the 27 earthquakes, three of them are significant because the tremors can be felt by residents. They are the earthquakes that rattled the areas of Gunung Sitoli and West Nias (in North Sumatra), as well as in Takengon (Aceh)," she said.

"The BMKG urges the people  at large to remain vigilant and stay calm. They are also advised to respond quickly to BMKG information, and to keep their distance if an earthquake occurs during the COVID-19 pandemic," Sari said//ANT