VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesia recorded 2,880 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total tally of infections to 196,989 as of Monday, according to the country's Task Force for COVID-19.

With 2,077 people recovering from COVID-19, the total recoveries stood at 140,652, the task force noted in a report released on Monday.

Meanwhile, the death toll reached 8,130, with 105 people succumbing to the disease within the last 24 hours.

On Monday, about 18,412 specimens were examined. In total, Indonesia has examined 2,452,164 specimens since its first confirmed cases in March 2020. While suspects rose to 89,992.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread to 34 provinces, covering 489 districts/cities.

Jakarta recorded the highest number of new cases reaching 1,046, followed by 307 in East Java, 264 in Central Java, 204 in West Java, 173 in Bali, 133 in Riau, 92 in North Sumatra, 77 each in Banten and South Kalimantan, and 74 in Papua.

The task force also noted that 13 provinces witnessed the addition of less than 10 new cases on Monday, with eight provinces-Bangka Belitung, Bengkulu, Jambi, West Kalimantan, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and East Nusa Tenggara reported no new cases.

East Java recorded the highest daily death toll of 31, with 662 patients recovering from the virus on Monday. Jakarta witnessed the highest daily recovery rate.

Cumulatively, Jakarta still leads in terms of the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, at 47,379, followed by 35,941 in East Java, 15,615 in Central Java, 12,709 in West Java, and 12,695 in South Sulawesi.

With 35,454 patients recovering from the virus, Jakarta recorded the highest recovery rate, followed by 28,389 in East Java, 10,181 in Central Java, 9,746 in South Sulawesi, and 6,851 in South Kalimantan.

Meanwhile, East Java recorded the highest number of patients succumbing to the virus at 2,576 deaths, followed by 1,296 deaths in Jakarta, 1,090 in Central Java, and 372 each in South Sulawesi and South Kalimantan. (Antaranews)

Taiwan authorities stated they are ready to play an active role in global solidarity in facing the Covid-19 pandemic, some of which was demonstrated by donating personal protective equipment to more than 80 countries, including Indonesia.

"As of the end of June this year, Taiwan has donated 51 million medical masks, 1.16 million N95 masks, 600,000 isolation gears, 35,000 thermometers, and other medical equipment to more than 80 countries, including Indonesia," Jaushieh Joseph Wu, a high official of Taiwan Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, as reported by the Taiwan Economic and Trade Office for Indonesia (TETO).

Joseph Wu said that his party is also cooperating with several countries to develop Covid-19 rapid test kits, drugs and vaccines.

Compared to other countries in Asia, Taiwan is quite successful in controlling the spread of Covid-19 thanks to the high number of active examinations and tracking of positive patients and suspects.

Covid-19 pandemic has infected people in more than 200 countries and territories. Therefore, Wu said that the world community needs to increase cooperation in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The international community needs to make more concerted efforts than ever before, to build a better and more sustainable future. Taiwan is ready, willing, and able to participate in this joint effort," he concluded. (RRI)

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday the world must be better prepared for the next pandemic, as he called on countries to invest in public health.

More than 27.19 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 888,326​ have died, according to a Reuters tally, since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.

“This will not be the last pandemic,” Tedros told a news briefing in Geneva.

“History teaches us that outbreaks and pandemics are a fact of life. But when the next pandemic comes, the world must be ready–more ready than it was this time.” (Emma Farge and Michael Shields/Reuters)

Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd (SVA.O) said on Monday its coronavirus vaccine candidate appeared to be safe for older people, according to preliminary results from an early to mid-stage trial, while the immune responses triggered by the vaccine were slightly weaker than younger adults.

Health officials have been concerned about whether experimental vaccines could safely protect the elderly, whose immune systems usually react less robustly to vaccines, against the virus that has led to nearly 890,000 deaths worldwide.

Sinovac’s candidate CoronaVac did not cause severe side effects in a combined Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials launched in May involving 421 participants aged at least 60, Liu Peicheng, Sinovac’s media representative, told Reuters. The complete results have not been published and were not made available to Reuters.

Four of the world’s eight vaccines that are in the third phase of trials are from China.

For three groups of participants who respectively took two shots of low, medium, and high-dose CoronaVac, over 90% of them experienced a significant increase in antibody levels, while the levels were slightly lower than those seen in younger subjects but in line with expectation, Liu said in a statement.

CoronaVac, being tested in Brazil and Indonesia in the final-stage human trials to evaluate whether it is effective and safe enough to obtain regulatory approvals for mass use, has already been given to tens of thousands of people, including about 90% of Sinovac employees and their families, as part of China’s emergency inoculation scheme to protect people facing high infection risk.

The potential vaccine could remain stable for up to three years in storage, Liu said, which might offer Sinovac some advantage in vaccine distribution to regions where cold-chain storage is not an option.

Such estimation is extrapolated from the fact that vaccines readings stayed within acceptable ranges for 42 days at 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit), 28 days at 37C (98.6 F), and five months for 2-8C (35.6-46.4 F), Liu said, without disclosing complete data. (Roxanne Liu and Tony Munroe/Reuters)