VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The daily report for COVID-19 released by the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 showed that on Monday the additional positive confirmation reached 3,622 cases, while the number of cured cases increased by 4,140 people.

With this addition, the total positive confirmation of COVID-19 in Indonesia will be 307,120 cases and cases recovered to 232,593 people.

Meanwhile, 102 cases of death have increased, bringing the total number of cases died from COVID-19 to 11,253 people.

On Sunday, from 12.00 WIB to Monday 12.00 WIB, the number of specimens examined by 343 laboratories throughout Indonesia reached 27,024 out of 22,771 people, bringing the total number of specimens examined reached 3,515,165 specimens from 2,119,355 people.

Provinces with the highest number of positive confirmations were Jakarta (1,022 cases), West Java (503 cases), Central Java (365 cases), Riau (298 cases), and East Java (237 cases).

Meanwhile, the provinces with the number of recovered patients are Jakarta (984 people), West Java (790 people), East Java (285 people), Riau (283 people), and Java Central (200 people). 

The number of suspects who are still being monitored reaches 141,169 people, while positive confirmation of COVID-19 which is still being monitored reaches 307,120 people. (Antaranews)

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani asked countries, which are members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) to increase cooperation to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"We see that ASEAN has had a significant impact on COVID-19 and economic recovery in ASEAN highly depends on cooperation in ASEAN," she said during a meeting with Commission XI of the Indonesian Parliament in Jakarta, Monday.

Sri Mulyani said that the expansion of cooperation to overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic can be done through increasing investment, trade, and human mobility. 

"This has been the key to the dynamism of the ASEAN economy so far," she said. 

She emphasized that increased cooperation must be done because the COVID-19 pandemic has put ASEAN countries under tremendous pressure as seen from the contraction in the economy. 

She mentioned that Malaysia has contracted 17.1 percent, the Philippines minus 16.5 percent, Singapore minus 13.2 percent, Thailand minus 12.2 percent, and Indonesia is still much better at minus 5.32 percent. 

"They also have a deep APBN deficit or equal to or greater than Indonesia. Minus 6.5 percent for Malaysia; 7.6 percent for the Philippines; 13.6 percent for Singapore; and minus 6 percent for Thailand," she said. 

The world also predicts economic growth in ASEAN countries this year, such as Indonesia minus 2 percent to minus 1.6 percent, Malaysia minus 6.1 percent to minus 4.9 percent, and the Philippines minus 9.9 percent to minus 6.9 percent. Then Thailand minus 10.4 percent to 8.3 percent, Vietnam 1.5 percent to 2.8 percent, Cambodia minus 2.9 percent to minus 2 percent, Laos minus 2.4 percent to minus 0.6 percent, and Myanmar minus 0,9 percent to 0.5 percent. 

"Only Vietnam is relatively good. Even Cambodia, which is usually relatively developed and new, usually can still be high, but they also experience a deep contraction," she said. 

Sri Mulyani is optimistic that ASEAN is an economic and market region. will give a big advantage between one den bro, so they can mutually reinforce and improve data resilience because of the pandemic crisis. 

"I can see it from 1997 to 1998 when the ASEAN financial crisis and global financial crisis occurred, namely ASEAN was one of the easiest regions to recover from," she said. (Antaranews)

PT Bio Farma targets to produce 3 million reagents for COVID-19 testing using the Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) method or PCR test.

Director of Bio Farma, Honesti Basyir, in a hearing (RDP) with the House of Representatives Commission VI in Jakarta, Monday, explained that reagent production will begin this month with a production capacity of 1.5 million.

"Now we can produce reagents for PCR tests, which we have been overwhelmed by because we are fighting over this product. Starting this month we can produce with a production capacity of 1.5 million tests per month and we are trying to increase the capacity to 3 million per month," he said.

Honesti said they pushed the increase in reagent production for PCR tests to 3 million tests per month to support the government's target of carrying out COVID-19 testing tests up to 80 thousand tests per day.

"That means we need at least 2.4 million-2.5 million reagents per month. That's why we are trying to increase the capacity of 3 million reagents for production," Honesti said.

Apart from starting to produce reagents for PCR tests itself, the pharmaceutical BUMN holding through Kimia Farma has also collaborated with the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) and the Ministry of Research and Technology to produce rapid test kits with a production target of 100 thousand tests per month.

They use reagents required for extraction in checking specimens. The reagent contains several chemical compounds to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (Antaranews)

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasized that the government must maintain a balance between health and economy amid a pandemic because both have implications for the welfare of the community.

"This is something we have to maintain a balance between health and maintaining the economy and restoring people's welfare," she said at the Joint Meeting with the Indonesian Parliament in Jakarta, Monday.

Sri Mulyani stated that balancing the economic and health aspects is a very difficult task but it can be achieved if all elements of the nation have a concern to work together.

“The COVID-19 is not a financial problem, but it is a health problem," she said.

She said the balance had to be done because the government's efforts to restore the economy related to the welfare of the community would very much depend on handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister explained that there are several factors that affect economic recovery, such as the potential for a second wave, availability of vaccines, and vaccination activities so that handling in the health sector must also be the main thing.

Meanwhile, the economic sector had seen a reversal trend in the third quarter after there was deep pressure in the previous quarters.

She predicts that the third quarter will still be in the negative zone, but it will be better than the growth in the second quarter which contracted by 5.32 percent.

"Growth in the first quarter was at 3 percent, the second quarter was minus 5.3 percent, and in the third quarter we predict that it might still negative, although it is much better than in the second quarter," she said.

Sri Mulyani explained that recovery in both the economic and health sectors requires a very large fiscal stimulus, causing this year's state budget deficit to be estimated at 6.34 percent.

This fiscal stimulus was also carried out by various countries including UK, Spain, France, and Germany, which reached 10 percent of GDP, causing economic contraction to reach double digits.

"In this context, we say that the entire world who experienced a tremendous shock then they use fiscal as a countercyclical and that causes a quite large deficit," she said. (Antaranews)