VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Health Office of the South Jakarta City Administration said a total of 13,065 residents in the city, have undergone rapid testing for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as of Saturday. The head of the Health Office, Muhamad Helmy, informed as quoted by Antara News Agency, that 12,646 tested negative and 419 tested positiveThe number of residents testing positive for COVID-19 accounts for 3.2 percent of the total residents who have undergone rapid testing, he added.Mr Helmy said the tests have been conducted in South Jakarta, ever since President Joko Widodo issued instructions for rapid testing on March 20.The President ordered the implementation of COVID-19 rapid testing in South Jakarta before the rest of the country//Ant

University of Indonesia's Nursing School is running a COVID-19 Crisis Center, to provide consultation and counseling services, to people and medical workers in wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The counseling team includes lecturers at the nursing school and experienced nurses. As quoted by Antara News Agency, Dean of the University of Indonesia Nursing School, Agus Setiawan in a statement on Friday stated, the School established the crisis center when the COVID-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic. Setiawan revealed that  the university created a special team to educate people on COVID-19 transmission, prevention, and symptoms, along with issues around mental health during a pandemic//Ant

Indonesia is now ready to test four kinds of drugs, that could be potentially used for treating the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in 22 hospitals, as part of the World Health Organization's Solidarity Trial. More than 100 countries are participating in the Solidarity Trial, which involves clinical testing of four antiviral medications, provided by the WHO — remdesivir, lopinavir or ritonavir, a combined compound of lopinavir or ritonavir, and interferon beta 1A, as well as chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. As quoted by Antara, Professor Abdul Kadir, acting head of Research and Development Agency at the Ministry of Health, said in a statement issued on Friday that Indonesia is the sixth country to start the (Solidarity Trial) study, and the ministry hoping to hasten the discovery of drugs to fight COVID-19. Furthermore, the ministry's head of Research Center, Irmansyah, said more hospitals in Indonesia will get involved in the program in the near future//Ant

State-owned enterprise airline Garuda Indonesia halts its flights operating in eight areas across Indonesia enacting the Large-Scale Social Distancing (PSBB) measure over concerns of coronavirus transmission, effective from April 25.

This is a measure adopted in compliance with the Ministry of Transportation's regulation on preventing Muslims from partaking in the exodus during the Ramadhan season in order to restrict people’s movements, as it is expected to contain the spread of COVID-19.
In accordance with the rules, domestic flights should be temporarily halted over some areas implementing PSBB or those demarcated as red zones of the disease from April 24 through May 31.

Taking into account that today is a period for disseminating information, Garuda Indonesia is still operating flights with no such exception in the areas covered until midnight, the airline's President Director, Irfan Setiaputra, noted in a statement issued on Friday, April 24

"Thus, starting from tomorrow, Saturday, April 25, at 12 a.m. local time, Garuda Indonesia will not operate flights on domestic routes linked to all areas with the PSBB status or the red zones of COVID-19," Setiaputra clarified.

"As per today, eight areas enacting PSBB are Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Pekanbaru, Makassar, region of West Sumatra, Banjarmasin, and Tarakan," he noted, adding that Garuda Indonesia will cover other areas as usual.

The airline has ensured to waive administrative fee for the flight adjustment processes of rerouting and rescheduling as well as providing airplane vouchers aligned with the regulations. (ANTARA)