VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A tea plantation in Samigaluh sub-district, Kulon Progo District, Yogyakarta Province. (Foto ANTARA/Sutarmi)

The newly inaugurated Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA) is expected to help boost hotel and restaurant businesses in Kulon Progo District, Yogyakarta Province, according to a local tourism official.

"Yogyakarta International Airport is one of the triggers for the growth of hospitality and restaurant businesses in Kulon Progo, along with other existing facilities and services available here," Head of Kulon Progo Tourism Office Joko Mursito said in Kulonprogo, Yogyakarta, on Saturday.

So far, tourists stayed not more than one day in Kulon Progo and it did not contribute much to the local economy, he said.

He was upbeat that in future tourists would stay long enough in Kulon Progo when new star-rated hotels and restaurants would be available to offer better services and comfort.

Kulon Progo has some 30 tourist attractions and several of them needed to be improved, he remarked.

Now, local tourists started to visit Glagah Beach to enjoy the view of planes landing in and taking off from YIA, he noted.

"In 2021, a culinary plaza will be built in Glagah and additional facilities and infrastructure will be made available to support the (COVID-19) health protocols," he said.

The district's tourism office has also trained local tourist officers an guides to improve their skills and knowledge including on the health protocols that must be implemented amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) on Thursday inaugurated the Yogyakarta International Airport that has a capacity to accommodate 20 million people annually.

The new airport is about 60 km away form the world's most famous Buddhist temple, Borobudur, which has been designated by the government to become one of the five super priority tourist destinations. (ANTARA)

Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD boarded a horse-drawn carriage after distributing face masks to local residents and tourists on Yogyakarta's Malioboro Street on Aug 30, 2020. (FOTO ANTARA/Luqman Hakim)

Coordinating Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD joined a public awareness campaign to wear face mask in public places on Sunday morning by distributing face masks to local residents and tourists on Yogyakarta's Malioboro Street.

Accompanied by his wife, Zaizatun Nihayati, and several people who joined the campaign, Mahfud MD walked down the street and distributed antibacterial face masks to many local residents and tourists that he met on the city's popular tourist destination.

After distributing the face masks as part of the government's endeavors to make the people aware of the importance of wearing proper masks to contain the spread of novel coronavirus disease, he boarded a horse-drawn carriage.

On Saturday evening, Mahfud MD who brought some 15,000 face masks for the public awareness campaign had also distributed face masks to the city's arts and culture enthusiasts.

During his stay in Yogyakarta, he said he also planned to distribute the face masks to students and teachers of local Islamic boarding schools.

Being disciplined in wearing the face masks and implementing other preventive measures mandated in the government's health protocols was important for achieving a new normal, he added.

Going by data released by the COVID-19 task force, the rate of coronavirus infections is yet to slow in Indonesia. With 3,003 additional cases reported on Friday, Indonesia’s total case count has now reached 165,887. Meanwhile, the recovery rate has increased from 118,575 on Thursday to 120,000, while the death toll has climbed to 7,169 from 7,064.

Among those who have succumbed to the coronavirus which causes COVID-19 are doctors and paramedics fighting on the frontlines of the country's war against the pandemic.

As of August 21, 2020, as many as 86 doctors have died of COVID-19, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) has been quoted by local media outlets as saying.

The novel coronavirus disease, which initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, 2019 and then spread to at least 213 countries, has become a global pandemic, threatening the lives of millions of people.

According to Worldometer, 24,655,052 people around the world had been infected with COVID-19 as of August 28, 2020, and of the total figure, 836,143 patients had succumbed to the virus, while 17,114,130 others had reported a recovery. (ANTARA)

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil participated in the Phase III of Clinical Trials of Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine in Bandung recently. (ANTARA/Bagus Ahmad Rizaldi)

The Padjadjaran University's Research Team for the Clinical Trials of Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine revealed that 248 volunteers, including West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, had been administered the vaccine.

"As many as 21 of the 248 volunteers have even received the second vaccine injections without having serious symptoms," the Unpad's research team manager, Eddy Fadliyana, said in a statement in Bandung, the capital of West Java Province, on Sunday.

None of the participating volunteers suffered serious symptoms after receiving the first and second vaccine injections, Fadliyana said, adding that the research on the clinical trials could be concluded successfully to enable the vaccine to be produced.

Among the volunteers who have received the vaccine injections are West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil and several officials of the provincial government.

Head of the Disease Prevention and Control Unit at Bandung City's Health Office Rosye Arosdiani Apip said earlier that the first batch of volunteers participating in the phase III clinical trials received the vaccine injections at several health centers.

The health facilities comprise Unpad's Health Center and Faculty of Medicine as well as the Garuda, Ciumbuleuit, Dago, and Sukapakir Public Health Centers.

In the first batch, one volunteer failed to participate in the clinical trial at the Garuda Public Health Center after receiving a reactive result in his rapid test, Apip revealed.

The Padjadjaran University's Research Team for Clinical Trials of Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine need 1,620 volunteers who meet all required criteria for being able to participate in the clinical trials.

State-owned pharmaceutical holding company Bio Farma recently collaborated with Chinese company Sinovac to produce the COVID-19 vaccine for Indonesia. The COVID-19 vaccine material from Sinovac arrived in Indonesia on July 19.

Novel coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Since then, COVID-19 has spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a massive spurt in death toll.

To tackle this COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia is leaving no stone unturned to develop a vaccine to fight the virus.

Currently, in addition to the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Indonesian scientists are working on a vaccine named after the country's national flag, Merah Putih (Red and White). (ANTARA)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto (ANTARA)

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto has said Indonesia's economy has started to move positively again after being badly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic since early March 2020.

"We see that in the third and fourth periods, there has been a positive reversal in which the Purchasing Managers Index or PMI has increased to nearly 50 from 46.9," Airlangga Hartarto said while speaking during a national campaign on face mask wearing held at GBK main stadium, Senayan, Jakarta, on Sunday.

"We can see that our trade has also enjoyed a surplus of over 3 billion US dollars and a year to date of around 8 billion US dollars. And of course these have contributed to the state's reserves," he said, adding that in the capital market, a number of sectors also began to grow and were expected to lead to the domestic economic recovery.

After experiencing the lowest point on April 1, 2020, many sectors now started to grow, such the sector of industry went up 31.85 percent, chemical industry 31 percent, agriculture 28 percent, finance 20 percent, mining 20 percent, consumer goods 18, 5 percent, infrastructure 11.5 percent, and trade 6.7 percent, the coordinating minister pointed out.

"From an economic point of view, the index in the capital market specifically in several sectors, including banking, has increased at a range of 20 to 30 percent," he said.

In addition to, motor vehicle sales, that were previously minus 80 percent, now started to improve to minus 40 percent.

"The government hopes that this trend can be maintained, but we first must take care of the health sector. As the vaccine is still being developed, hence wearing a mask is the main key to our economic recovery," he said.

He emphasized that the national economic recovery during this pandemic must start from the discipline of the community in wearing face masks.

The National Face Mask Campaign Movement was organized by the Committee for the COVID-19 Handling and the National Economic Recovery (PC-PEN) chaired by Coordinating Minister Airlangga Hartarto.

A total of 22,500 face masks from the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs and 20,000 face masks from the Health Ministry were distributed to people exercising in the GBK area during the campaign.

The government will later also organize campaigns to promote hand washing and maintaining physical distancing. (ANTARA)