VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A screenshot of Tourism and Creative Economy Minister, Sandiaga Uno. (ANTARA/Dokumentasi Pribadi)/rst) - 

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, has asked tourism schools to stay productive and innovative amid the ongoing global pandemic of novel coronavirus disease that has severely affected Indonesia's public health and economy.

"I have requested all tourism schools to stay productive and innovative during the pandemic, as a part of the implementation of the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (Freedom to Learn, Freedom Campus) Program," he informed in a press statement issued on Friday.

The minister said he has asked tourism schools to hold online learning and training activities to hone the skills of lecturers and students.

Schools must also develop network infrastructure, curriculum, and conduct independent research on aiding economic recovery in the tourism and creative economy sectors, he advised.

The minister urged people from tourism universities and related communities to stay optimistic, hopeful, and enthusiastic, and continue to strive, especially since the tourism sector has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Half of the 34 million people working in the tourism sector and the creative economy are now being laid off or are in danger of losing their jobs," Uno pointed out.

He then asked higher education institutions, especially in the tourism sector, to adapt and make a real contribution to society, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Tourism schools, through their principals, should continue to improve the quality of their collaboration with the business world, industry, government, and other universities to establish innovation in the world of education," Uno said.

Meanwhile, secretary of the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, Ni Wayan Giri Adnyani, said the ministry is committed to expediting vaccinations for the tourism and creative economy community.

"Please remind your friends, family, staff, and students to always carry out strict health protocols everywhere," Adnyani reiterated.

Head of the Indonesian Tourism Higher Education Institute, Suhendroyono, also invited tourism schools and the community to pray for the recovery of the tourism industry, especially in Indonesia//ANT

Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Secretary General Sudirman Said (second right), with Head of Jakarta's PMI Office Rustam Effendi (first right), and Head of PMI-North Jakarta Office Sabri Saiman (second left) (ANTARA/Abdu Faisal/MY) - 

Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Secretary General Sudirman Said lauded people's initiative to assist those suffering from COVID-19 in the country by launching the Recovering Together Movement that potentially helps reduce the burden on hospitals and healthcare workers.

"The 'Recovering Together Movement' is initiated by professionals, business executives, and humanitarian workers," Said noted in Jakarta on Friday.

The movement is aimed at facilitating people contracting the coronavirus to recover from the virus so that the burden on hospitals and health workers can be reduced during the pandemic, he said.

To this end, PT Lintas Raya Terpadu, for instance, has turned one of its buildings in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, into a self-isolation facility for COVID-19 patients, he informed.

The LRT initiative is expected to inspire other regions to do the same, he said.

Many buildings owned by state-owned enterprises, region-owned enterprises, and private-owned businesses are not being optimally used due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he noted.

If those buildings could be used as self-isolation facilities for the public, the burden on healthcare workers and hospitals could be reduced, he said.

"Buildings like boarding houses, training and education centers, andoffices can temporarily be used as centralized self-isolation facilities to ease the burden on health workers and hospitals," he said. 

Meanwhile, Head of PMI-North Jakarta Office Sabri Saiman said that PT LRT's self-isolation facility which offers 21 rooms is a good initiative while the PMI supports the initiative by providing health workers and food ingredients.

At this self-isolation facility, there are rooms with two, three, and more beds that are suitable for a family. Each room has an air conditioner and wireless internet connection, he said.

PT LRT has also provided a public kitchen for self-isolating patients that they may manage themselves.

Every facility in a self-isolation space does notuse state funds, he said. For example, public kitchens are managed by the patients themselves, he added.

He deemed independent management necessary for building public awareness on social issues so that people can remain enthusiastic about their treatment and their surroundings until they make a recovery.

Wijanarko from PT LRT said that the facility for self-isolating COVID-19 patients was initially meant for the internal use for the employees of city-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) who get infected by the coronavirus. 

"There are some places we use (for staff's self-isolation spaces), the decent ones. So, we make isolation space for internal use," Wijanarko said.

"Jakpro has collaborated with some others (stakeholders) to (allow the building) to be used by locals living nearby," he added//ANT

A car waits to enter a checkpoint to enter Canada at the Canada-United States border crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge, which remains closed to non-essential traffic to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada September 28, 2020. REUTERS/Lars Hagberg - 

The Canadian government and border staff have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, the unions representing the workers said on Friday, bringing a swift end to strike action that began earlier in the day.

The disruption caused a backlog at the border and came just as Canada prepared to allow fully vaccinated U.S. visitors in for the first time in sixteen months on Monday.

Talks between two unions representing Canadian border guards and staff - the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU) - and the federal government had reached an impasse in December 2020.

Union demands included higher pay and the ability to carry their guns in some areas such as airports. Their members have been without a contract for three years.

Earlier in the day, delays at the Canada-U.S. border slowed commercial crossings to a crawl and airports warned of lengthy delays//Reuters

A woman walks past a "Stay Safe Melbourne" sign on a mostly-empty city centre street as the state of Victoria looks to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Melbourne, Australia, May 28, 2021. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders - 

Australia's Victoria reported 29 new locally acquired coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily jump this year, as the state remains under a seven-day strict lockdown imposed earlier this week to reign the highly infectious Delta variant.

Health authorities said that all of the new infections are linked to previously reported cases but were not in quarantine during their infectious periods.

Victoria, Australia's second most populous state and home to near 7 million people, on Thursday night entered into its sixth lockdown since the pandemic began, just weeks after exiting the last one//Reuters