VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Kenyan athletes warm up before a training session in Nairobi, Kenya, May 8, 2021. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - 

Kenya unveiled its Tokyo Olympics squad on Saturday with a list of more than 40 athletes including world champion Hellen Obiri and defending 1,500m Olympic gold medallist Faith Chepngetich.

Notable names missing were 1,500m world champion Timothy Cheruiyot and defending Olympics 3,000m steeplechase champion Conseslus Kipruto after both failed to win their trials.

The East African nation is an athletics powerhouse and boasts some of the world's top athletes, who regularly win medals at elite competitions in Europe, Asia and North America.

"The race was good," Obiri said, after winning her 10,000m trial on Saturday.

"I have no pressure. I will be facing familiar opponents in Tokyo. I am used to fast-paced races and all I am going to do is continue with my training," she added, according to comments shared on Twitter by Athletics Kenya.

Obiri will be looking to secure an Olympic double in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

Team Kenya is sending a formidable squad for the Games that also includes marathon distance world record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei.

"I am confident our teams will perform better this year as the athletes showcase the training they had during the long break occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Sports Minister Amina Mohamed.

Also in the team is Geoffrey Kamworor who will compete in the men's 10,000m. Faith Chepngetich, who won her trial race on Thursday, will head to Tokyo as well to defend the 1,500m title she won in 2016 in Rio.

"I know I will meet many good athletes in Tokyo but I have prepared really well," she said.

Also among the Olympians will be Ferdinand Omanyala who qualified in the 100m with a 10.02 seconds run, a new national record.

Team Kenya plans to fly out to Japan on July 5 to set up camp in Kurume for the Games which start on July 23//CNA

Empty vials of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine are seen at The Michener Institute, in Toronto, Canada on Jan 4, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Osorio) - 

Indonesia will receive 50 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine jointly made by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the first batch expected in August, a senior health ministry official said on Saturday (Jun 19).

"Pfizer vaccines will start arriving from August, with shipments of between 7.5 million to 12 million doses per month,” said Siti Nadia Tarmizi, adding that the supply is the result of a direct government purchase.

Southeast Asia's biggest country is grappling with a fresh increase in coronavirus infections in recent weeks. It recorded its highest daily infection figure on Friday since late January, with 12,990 cases.

The country, with a population of about 270 million people, has recorded nearly 2 million coronavirus infections since the pandemic started and 54,291 deaths, the highest in Southeast Asia.

It aims to vaccinate 181.5 million people by next year. As of Saturday, 12.2 million people have received two doses of other vaccines.

Indonesia’s president on Thursday ordered authorities to speed up the country's vaccination campaign.

“We need vaccination acceleration in order to achieve communal immunity, which we hope can stop the COVID-19 spread,” President Joko Widodo said while visiting a vaccination centre just outside the capital Jakarta.

Widodo said he ordered his Cabinet ministers and local governments to increase the number of people vaccinated each day to 1 million by next month. He said Indonesia is currently vaccinating half a million people a day//CNA

Kominfo building - 

The Communication and Informatics Ministry (Kominfo) has reinstated its work-from-home guidance for all officials and staff amid a spike in coronavirus infections.

“Work from home was fully implemented during seven working days, starting June 17, 2021,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Dedy Permadi, stated in a press statement issued here on Saturday.

The work-from-home policy has been fully enforced for officials or staff working at the central office of the Communication and Informatics Ministry on Merdeka Barat street, Central Jakarta,he informed.

The policy has been issued in view of rising COVID-19 cases at the ministry, he added.

Permadi assured that all public service activities, including licensing, continue to run and remain accessible to the public.

The ministry is planning to implement a hybrid working pattern — a combination of work from home and office alternately — starting June 28, 2021, he said.

As reported earlier, the Jakarta provincial administration has extended micro-scale public activity restrictions (Micro PPKM) in the wake of a spike in COVID-19 cases in the capital city.

The micro PPKM has been imposed in Jakarta until June 28, 2021.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has attributed the recent increase in infections to the Eid al-Fitr festivities in May this year.

Based on data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as many as 12,990 people tested positive for COVID-19 across the nation in the 24 hours ended June 18, 2021, taking the total tally to 1,936,266.

Jakarta recorded the highest single-day increase in cases, contributing 4,737 cases or 36.47 percent of the total cases. Cumulatively, the COVID-19 tally in Jakarta has reached 463,552.

The city’s positivity rate also rose to 17.9 percent, Jakarta’s health provincial administration head Widyastuti informed on Tuesday (June 15, 2021).

The bed occupancy rate (BOR) in the capital also showed a significant increase with 78 percent or 5,752 out of the total 7,341 beds occupied in two weeks ended June 14, 2021. Meanwhile, 773 of the 1,086 ICU beds were occupied.

The Jakarta provincial administration is striving to increase the bed capacity by involving other parties, for instance, through adding self-isolation facilities with the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

The administration is also planning to use the Nagrak Cilincing flats, Wisma PMII and Wisma Ragunan, as additional facilities if the number of patients at Wisma Atlet continue to rise//ANT

The task force of Indonesian Migrant Workers Protection (PPMI) conduct a raid at a rented house in Halim Perdanakusuma, Makassar neighborhood in East Jakarta on Thursday (June 17, 2021). ANTARA/HO-the Manpower Ministry - 

The Manpower Ministry thwarted an attempt to smuggle 11 job seekers into Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be employed as domestic workers following a raid in East Jakarta this week.

Personnel of the ministry's task force for protecting Indonesian migrant workers traced them in two rented rooms at the Halim Perdanakusuma, Makassar, neighborhood area in East Jakarta on June 17.

The recruits come from different cities and provinces, including Bangka Belitung, Madiun, Pandeglang, Musi Banyuasin, Karawang, Sukabumi, Papua, Lampung Utara, Bandung, Purbalingga, and Cilegon.

The women were recruited and promised to be flown to Iraq and the UAE to then be employed as domestic workers, Manpower Ministry's officer, Suhartono, noted in a statement here, Saturday.

Their recruiters convinced the job seekers that they deserved high salaries by working as domestic workers in Middle Eastern countries, he revealed.

In protecting job seekers from falling prey to human trafficking operations, Suhartono urged Indonesians to seek information on job markets and career opportunities from dependable sources.

"Ensure that the information on overseas job opportunities is reliable by clarifying it with the manpower offices in the job seekers' districts or cities," Suhartono noted.

"They are also able to use the application provided by the ministry on smartphones for seeking reliable information on career opportunities," he stated.

According to ANTARA, the ongoing pandemic of the novel coronavirus disease has tended to increase unemployment rates in several affected nations owing to the economic slowdown.

In this pandemic situation, human trafficking syndicates continue to recruit job seekers.

In March 2020, the Indonesian police in Riau Province had thwarted an attempt by a transnational human trafficking syndicate to smuggle 15 Indonesians and two Indian nationals into Malaysia.

Members of the Malaysia-Indonesia-India syndicate attempted to transport the 17 victims aboard a speedboat through the waters of Sungai Cingam Village in Rupat Island, Bengkalis District.

"The human trafficking operation was conducted from Rupat Island, as the boat could reach the Malaysian territory within 30 minutes," Riau Police spokesperson Sen. Coms. Sunarto had stated last year.

The police arrested five suspects -- identified as AM alias Ahmad, AR alias Abdul, KH alias Irul, HL alias Lina, and SP alias Pian -- who played different roles in the human trafficking operation.

Ahmad served as the boat's skipper, while Abdul and Irul were crew members.

Lina served as the recruiter and enticed the victims to travel to Malaysia by promising them high wage jobs, while Pian coordinated the operation.

The suspects were likely Rupat islanders, according to Suharto. They attempted to take the people, who paid them, by speedboat through the Morong Strait to Malaysia.

The trafficking attempt comes at a time when Indonesian and Malaysian authorities are working relentlessly to tackle the outbreak of COVID-19//ANT