VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A visitor poses with batik cloth at an Indonesian batik exhibition. (ANTARA/HO-Embassy of Republic Indonesia in Moskow/uyu) - 

Knowledge on batik needs to be included in school curriculum, Director General of Culture Hilmar Farid at the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry, has said.

“Actually, people are still lacking the understanding of the meaning and significance of the symbols in batik patterns. If it can be taught again in schools, it will revive our great traditions," he remarked when contacted by ANTARA here on Friday.

Although there is a lot of information about batik in the media, it will be more systematic if batik becomes a part of the lessons given in schools—at least on the areas of origin of the batik patterns, he explained.

It will help children in the areas to recognize the symbols and meanings of batik patterns, which are native to the region, he said.

Furthermore, the attempt will provide further information on batik, thus the public can wear the cloth on different occasions according to the patterns’ meaning, he added.

“For instance, a certain kind of batik cloth pattern is suitable for weddings, while others are not,” the director general said.

People cannot wear batik cloth with slobog pattern while attending a wedding as the pattern represents the act of grieving, he explained.

On the contrary, someone cannot attend a funeral wearing trutum or sidoluhur batik patterns, which symbolize happiness and good hope, respectively, he said.

By understanding and wearing batik properly, people can express their feelings and convey their messages to others through Indonesia’s own priceless cultural heritage, Farid remarked.

“Studying and grasping this kind of knowledge will be interesting. People can tell non-verbally that they are in a grieving state or being joyful -- and so on,” he added.

Indonesia commemorates National Batik Day every October 2 to mark the date when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) acknowledged batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009//ANT

Motorists queue for fuel at a filling station in Odiham, Hampshire on Sep 30, 2021. (Photo: AFP) - 

The British army will begin delivering petrol to fuel stations on Monday (Oct 4) to help alleviate the ongoing crisis after fears over tanker driver shortages led to panic buying, the government said on Friday.

"Almost 200 military tanker personnel, 100 of which are drivers, will be deployed from Monday to provide temporary support as part of the government's wider action to further relieve pressure on petrol stations and address the shortage of HGV drivers," the government said in a news release.

Motorists queued at fuel pumps across Britain at the beginning of the week, draining tanks and fraying tempers.

The government says a lack of tanker drivers to deliver fuel and unprecedented demand is behind the crisis.

Demand for fuel has stabilised throughout the week and stations are gradually stocking up again, but some parts of the country still face severe shortages.

"Thanks to the immense efforts of industry over the past week, we are seeing continued signs that the situation at the pumps is slowly improving," said business minister Kwasi Kwarteng.

"It's important to stress there is no national shortage of fuel in the UK, and people should continue to buy fuel as normal. The sooner we return to our normal buying habits, the sooner we can return to normal," he added.

The military drivers were put on standby at the beginning of the week, and have since received specialised training.

The government has already made a U-turn on tighter post-Brexit immigration policy, offering short-term visa waivers to foreign truckers to help plug the shortfall.

Fuel operators, including Shell, BP and Esso, said there was "plenty of fuel at UK refineries" and expected demand to return to normal soon.

But following a week of queues, drivers in many parts of the country are still unable to get fuel, stoking concern about the effects on the wider economy.

Critics blame government inaction on tackling shortages of lorry drivers after Britain's departure from the European Union in January and the pandemic, which saw many foreign truckers leave the country.

As well as fuel deliveries, the shortage has led to empty supermarket shelves and raised fears about deliveries of food and toys for Christmas//CNA

FILE PHOTO: An experimental COVID-19 treatment pill called molnupiravir being developed by Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP, is seen in this undated handout photo released by Merck & Co Inc and obtained by Reuters May 17, 2021. Merck & Co Inc/Handout via REUTERS - 

An experimental antiviral pill developed by Merck & Co could halve the chances of dying or being hospitalised for those most at risk of contracting severe COVID-19, according to data that experts hailed as a potential breakthrough in how the virus is treated.

If it gets authorisation, molnupiravir, which is designed to introduce errors into the genetic code of the virus, would be the first oral antiviral medication for COVID-19.

Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said they plan to seek US emergency use authorisation for the pill as soon as possible and to make regulatory applications worldwide.

"An oral antiviral that can impact hospitalisation risk to such a degree would be game-changing," said Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Current treatment options include Gilead Sciences' infused antiviral remdesivir and generic steroid dexamethasone, both of which are generally only given once a patient has already been hospitalised.

"This is going to change the dialogue around how to manage COVID-19," Merck Chief Executive Robert Davis told Reuters.

Existing treatments are "cumbersome and logistically challenging to administer. A simple oral pill would be the opposite of that", Adalja added.

The results from the Phase III trial, which sent Merck shares up more than 9 per cent, were so strong that the study is being stopped early at the recommendation of outside monitors.

Shares of Atea Pharmaceuticals, which is developing a similar COVID-19 treatment, were up more than 21 per cent on the news.

Shares of COVID-19 vaccine makers Moderna were off more than 10 per cent, while Pfizer was down less than 1 per cent.

Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said investors believe "people will be less afraid of COVID and less inclined to get vaccines if there is a simple pill that can treat COVID".

Pfizer and Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG are also racing to develop an easy-to-administer antiviral pill for COVID-19. For now, only antibody cocktails that have to be given intravenously are approved for non-hospitalised patients.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said on Friday that molnupiravir is "a potential additional tool ... to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID", but added that vaccination "remains far and away, our best tool against COVID-19".

A planned interim analysis of 775 patients in Merck's study looked at hospitalisations or deaths among people at risk for severe disease. It found that 7.3 per cent of those given molnupiravir twice a day for five days were hospitalised and none had died by 29 days after treatment. That compared with a hospitalisation rate of 14.1 per cent for placebo patients. There were also eight deaths in the placebo group.

"Antiviral treatments that can be taken at home to keep people with COVID-19 out of the hospital are critically needed,” Wendy Holman, Ridgeback's CEO, said in a statement.

Scientists welcomed the potential new treatment to help prevent serious illness from the virus, which has killed almost 5 million people around the world, 700,000 of them in the United States.

"A safe, affordable, and effective oral antiviral would be a huge advance in the fight against COVID," said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases at the University of Oxford.

The study enrolled patients with laboratory-confirmed mild to moderate COVID-19, who had symptoms for no more than five days. All patients had at least one risk factor associated with poor disease outcome, such as obesity or older age.

Drugs in the same class as molnupiravir have been linked to birth defects in animal studies. Merck has said similar studies of molnupiravir - for longer and at higher doses than used in humans - indicate that the drug does not affect mammalian DNA.

Merck said viral sequencing done so far shows molnupiravir is effective against all variants of the coronavirus including the highly transmissible Delta, which has driven the recent worldwide surge in hospitalisations and deaths.

It said rates of adverse events were similar for both molnupiravir and placebo patients, but did not give details.

Merck has said data shows molnupiravir is not capable of inducing genetic changes in human cells, but men enrolled in its trials had to abstain from heterosexual intercourse or agree to use contraception. Women of child-bearing age in the study could be pregnant and also had to use birth control.

The US drugmaker said it expects to produce 10 million courses of the treatment by the end of 2021.

The company has a US government contract to supply 1.7 million courses of molnupiravir at a price of US$700 per course.

Davis said Merck has similar agreements with other governments, and is in talks with more. Merck said it plans a tiered pricing approach based on country income criteria.

The US government has the option to purchase up to an additional 3.5 million treatment courses if needed, a US health official told Reuters. The official asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to comment publicly on the contract.

Merck has also agreed to license the drug to several India-based generic drugmakers, which would be able to supply the treatment to low- and middle-income countries.

Molnupiravir is also being studied in a Phase III trial for preventing infection in people exposed to the coronavirus.

Merck officials said it is unclear how long the FDA review will take, although Dean Li, head of Merck's research labs, said, "they are going to try to work with alacrity on this"//CNA

A health worker carries used vials of a COVID-19 vaccine in Quezon City, Philippines, Sep 13, 2021. (Photo: AP/Aaron Favila) - 

The United States announced on Friday (Oct 1) it is sending more than 8 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Bangladesh and the Philippines in the latest wave of aid to a world still struggling to tame the pandemic.

Five shipments totalling 5,575,050 doses will go to the Philippines by next week, a White House official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another 2,508,480 doses will arrive early next week in Bangladesh, the official said.

The vaccines - all Pfizer-BioNTech - are being donated through the World Health Organization's COVAX program.

The "administration understands that putting an end to this pandemic requires eliminating it around the world", the official said, noting that US donations represent "the largest-ever purchase and donation of vaccines by a single country".

Hard-hit Bangladesh has already received millions of US vaccine doses, including another 2.5 million sent just last week.

According to AFP's database, only about 10 per cent of Bangladesh's population has been fully vaccinated.

The impoverished country of about 170 million people, which neighbours India, has imposed some of the world's longest lockdowns in an attempt to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The Philippines has recorded more than 2.5 million infections, including more than 38,000 deaths. Just over a quarter of the adult population has been fully vaccinated amid a delayed and slow vaccination roll-out.

Officials warn the economy could take more than a decade to recover from the pandemic impact, which has thrown millions out of work.

Nearly 70 per cent of the economy, including 23.3 million workers, remained under "heightened quarantine" restrictions, Economic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said on Thursday//CNA