VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

China is in the throes of a multibillion-dollar splurge on new football stadiums, ramping up ambitions to be a superpower in the sport and host a World Cup as early as 2030. As quoted by AFP.com, the building spree is taking place despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought much of the world to a standstill, ravaging economies and putting live sport on hold. But with the outbreak receding in China, where it emerged in December, Chinese Super League (CSL) champions, Guangzhou Evergrande, last week began construction on their 12 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) new home. With a capacity of 100,000, the lotus flower-shaped stadium will for a time trump Barcelona's Camp Nou -- which is set for expansion -- as the world's biggest football arena, once it is completed by the end of 2022//AFP

Muslims across the world began marking the holy month of Ramadan, under unprecedented coronavirus lockdowns on Friday, as the US added another half a trillion dollars to an economic support package, and Europe groped towards its own huge rescue plan. Ramadan spirits have been dampened by movement restrictions on hundreds of millions of Muslims from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Africa, with bans on prayers in mosques and large gatherings of families and friends to break the daily fast -- a centrepiece of the month. But despite the coronavirus threat, some clerics and conservatives in many countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia -- the world's largest Muslim-majority nation -- have pushed back against social distancing rules, refusing to stop gatherings in mosques//AFP

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