VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Local fishermen in West Aceh district, Aceh Province located 14 Iranian nationals whose boat was stranded in Hindia Ocean, near Meulaboh city, Tuesday, because of a broken oil pump, an official said here Tuesday.  

"The boat had shut down at the 04° 26' 616 N 064° 22' 488 E coordinates on Maldives waters, and was adrift in Meulaboh waters (in West Aceh district), with 15 mil distances to the nearest land," the Meulaboh Immigration Office's Head of Technology, Information, and Communication, Adi Hari Pianto said, citing they had been in the middle of ocean since Monday, January 27.

The boat which carried no permits, documents, or a flag, was tugged by a local motorboat to the Meulaboh Port which is situated at 04° 7' 39.306" N 96° 8' 15.2088 E. The broken vessel will be checked and repaired by the port's mechanics, Pianto added.

The 14 Iranian nationals were identified as Lal Muhammad, Annar, Al Abbas, Abdullah, Mohammad Rafiq, Abdul Nasir, Abdullah Fariziq, Jawi, Ismail, Muhammad Rafiq, Nathim, Adam, Syahaqi, and Amir Muhammad, according to the immigration's initial probe.

However, the Indonesian authorities will contact their counterparts at the Embassy of Iran to confirm the identities of the nationals, he remarked.

Meanwhile, the Meulaboh Immigration Office is still checking their travel documents to Indonesia, Pianto said.

Apart from the embassy, the Meulaboh Immigration Office will also request support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for an interpreter, as none of the local officers speaks Persian. With an interpreter, the immigration offices hope to glean more information on the 14 Iranian nationals, Pianto said. (INE/ANTARA)

The Bogor city administration gave its approval to a foreign investment plan to build plastic waste-to-oil facilities in the final disposal site (TPA) in Galuga Village of Bogor District, West Java.

Bogor Mayor Bima Arya here, Wednesday, spoke of having inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the British recycling company Plastic Energy Limited to process plastic waste at the Galuga disposal site.

The London-based company will require approval from both the Bogor district and Bogor city administrations to build the plant.

Arya noted that the approval for building a plastic waste recycling plant is in accordance with the city's program of "Botak," or Bogor with no-plastic bags, to minimize the use of plastic bags in the city.

The Bogor mayor on Tuesday (Jan 28) has met with a representative of the British company Kirk Evans at the city hall.

Evans noted at the meeting that his company had the technology to transform plastic waste into diesel oil through the process of pyrolysis.

The plastic waste supply would be sourced from TPA Galuga in Bogor District that collected all types of waste from Jakarta, Bogor District, and Bogor City.

The company was planning to build five waste-to-fuel plants costing $40 million each across West Java.

Each plant is expected to daily process 70 tons of low-grade plastic waste, including plastic bags and wrappers, and convert it to fuel. For every ton of plastic waste, the plant can produce 860 liters of fuel, comprising 80 percent diesel and 20 percent naphtha.

Arya recently revealed that Bogor City produces 600 tons of waste per day, of which 13 percent is plastic waste. (INE/ANTARA)

China's new coronavirus outbreak has made the Indonesia Tour and Travel Agency Association (ASITA) concerned with slowing demand for tour packages as several countries have reported cases of infection, Head of the ASITA-Yogyakarta Chapter Udhi Sudiyanto said.

"Despite the absence of significant cancels, the demands for tour packages this month and next months may get decreased compared to those in the previous months," he told journalists in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.

This situation indicated that many foreign tourists still wait and see the development of this novel coronavirus that has killed at least 106 people in China, he said, adding that travel agencies become one of the tourism industry players that get impacted.

Travelers need safety, security, and comfortability. Therefore, the government and other related stakeholders of the tourism industry are expected to do everything necessary to ensure that both domestic and foreign tourists coming to Yogyakarta feel safe and comfortable, he said.

As part of the government's precautionary measures, a thermal scanner has been installed in Yogyakart's airport but the government is expected to be more serious in monitoring the travelers from China on their arrivals and departures so that they can be handled immediately and properly if something unexpected occurs.

Udhi Sudiyanto admitted that China is one of the primary markets for Yogyakarta's tourism industry.

Chinese authorities declared the first case of coronavirus after a person with pneumonia was hospitalized in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, according to an official statement of the WHO.

Over the past weeks, people, with symptoms of pneumonia and reported travel history to Wuhan, had been identified at international airports.

This novel coronavirus has, so far, claimed at least 106 lives in China, while several other countries, such as Thailand, Australia, Singapore, the United States, Japan, and Canada, have announced their confirmed cases.

However, none of the confirmed cases were found in Indonesia. Apart from this reality, since the issuance of an official statement by the WHO on the coronavirus outbreak in China, the Indonesian government has remained on alert.

As part of its precautionary measures, thermal scanners have been installed at various airports around the archipelago for screening international passengers. The thermal scanners are aimed at detecting any foreign tourists symptomatic with this novel coronavirus.

Several hospitals in Indonesia's big cities have also made necessary preparations to handle those with suspected coronavirus symptoms. (ANTARA) 

The death toll from the new coronavirus now stands at 106, with the number of infections almost doubling in a day to more than 4,500.

The rise comes as governments scramble to control the spread of the virus. Hong Kong is going to slash cross-border travel with mainland China.

Meanwhile, Japan is sending a plane to Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, to evacuate its citizens

The virus has spread across China and to at least 16 countries globally.

Wuhan, as well as wider Hubei province, are already effectively in a lockdown with strict transport restrictions in and out of the area. Wearing masks in public is now mandatory in some Chinese cities.

On Monday, authorities in Beijing confirmed a 50-year-old man had died - the first fatality in the Chinese capital from the virus.

Hours later, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the high-speed rail line between the territory and mainland China would be suspended from Thursday. Flights, buses and ferry services will also be cut down drastically in an effort to halt the virus's spread to the city - a global financial centre.

The coronavirus causes severe acute respiratory infection and there is no specific cure or vaccine.

Most of the deaths have been in Hubei province. The initial victims were mostly elderly people or those with pre-existing respiratory problems, but few details have been released about the dozens of deaths confirmed in recent days.

A total of 60 people had been discharged from hospital after recovery, according to Chinese state media.

What steps is China taking?

Efforts to stem the spread of the virus have coincided with the Lunar New Year celebration, which usually sees millions travel across the country to visit relatives and friends.

To try and stop the spread of infections, many of the new year festivities have been suspended and the holiday period has been extended by three days to Sunday.

Chinese authorities have also imposed several other measures in recent days:

• Beijing and Shanghai introduced a 14-day observation period for people arriving from Hubei
• Authorities postponed the new semester for schools and universities nationwide, without giving a resumption date
• China Railway Group suspended hundreds of train lines throughout the country
• The immigration administration encouraged citizens to reconsider the timing of overseas travel to reduce cross-border movement

In Wuhan, travel from the city of 11 million people has been severely restricted and non-essential vehicles have been banned from the roads.

The city's mayor though said about five million people had already left the city ahead of the holidays and before the lockdown.

Several major cities have suspended public transport systems, taxis and ride-hailing services.

The Disneyland attraction parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong have both been closed.

How is the virus spreading?

The new coronavirus is thought to have emerged from illegally traded wildlife at a seafood market in Wuhan and can now spread between people.

Chinese authorities over the weekend said the virus was - like a normal flu - able to spread during its incubation period and before any symptoms appeared.

This would set it apart from cases like Sars and Ebola and make it much harder to contain.

The incubation period can range from two to 10 days, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

However unlike China, it said it remained unclear whether the virus was contagious before symptoms appear.

The number of total cases confirmed by China rose to 4,515 as of 27 January, up from 2,835 a day earlier.

What is the situation internationally?

The United States, which has also had several infected cases, has urged its nationals to "reconsider travel" to China and is advising against travel to Hubei.

The country plans to fly consular staff and US citizens out of Wuhan in the coming days.

Japan is expecting to evacuate about 200 nationals on a chartered plane on Wednesday morning, with health workers on board to monitor passengers. The evacuees will be asked to look out for any symptoms of the new coronavirus for two weeks after their return.

Many other countries have also warned against any non-essential travel to China. Like the US and Japan, France has said it plans to airlift citizens out of Wuhan.

The UK is yet to make a similar decision but has urged Britons to leave the area if they can - however this has upset some living in Hubei who complain they are trapped.

The Philippines on Tuesday announced they would stop issuing visas on arrival for Chinese travellers.

According to the World Health Organization and national authorities, there have been at least 47 confirmed cases outside China.

The latest case to be confirmed is in the German state of Bavaria, only the fourth so far in Europe.

So far, there have been no deaths outside China.

What is the new coronavirus?

The virus causes severe acute respiratory infection and symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough. After a week, some people can experience shortness of breath and need hospital treatment.

The virus itself is a new, or "novel" coronavirus - a family that normally affects animals.

The effect of the coronavirus family on humans has long been observed mainly in the form of the common cold. In recent decades though, more serious coronaviruses - like Sars or Mers - have proven potentially deadly to humans.

Yet even in the cases of severe viruses most people infected were likely to fully recover just like they would from a normal flu.

On Tuesday, an expert at China's National Health Commission (NHC) said one week was sufficient for a recovery from mild coronavirus symptoms.

According to local media, the NHC also said the virus could infect children, but that their symptoms would be relatively mild. (BBC)