INDONESIA AIMS FOR SELF-RELIANCE IN MEDICAL DEVICES, PRODUCTS by Fardah

Jakarta, 16/5/2020 (Antara) - The novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, has infected 17,025 Indonesians so far, with the number of dead reaching 1,089, including scores of medical workers.

The Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Response on May 6, 2020 stated that 55 medical workers 38 doctors and 12 nurses have succumbed to COVID-19.

The medical workers got infected due to several reasons, including contact with patients who did not accurately report their condition and lack of proper hazmat suits to protect them while treating patients.

President Joko Widodo has instructed that optimum protection be extended to doctors and medical workers at the forefront of the battle against the pandemic, according to Doni Monardo, head of the COVID-19 task force.

The protection encompasses ensuring the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for medical workers handling COVID-19 patients.
"We do not want to see more doctors die owing to a lack of protection. We need to cooperate with all parties to ensure that doctors receive better protection," he remarked on May 6, 2020.

In addition to lack of PPEs, Indonesia is also facing shortages of other medical devices, such as COVID-19 test kits, ventilators, and medical masks, as well as medicines.

In early April, Trade Minister Agus Suparmanto relaxed a regulation on the export and import of health equipment and PPEs to resolve the problem of their scarcity.
The Trade Minister's Regulation No. 34 of 2020 temporarily bans the exports of antiseptics, mask raw materials, PPE, masks, and ethyl alcohol, until June 30, 2020, as domestic demand has jumped owing to the pandemic.
The Trade Minister's Regulation No. 28 of 2020 on the import of certain products has temporarily scrapped the obligation to submit a Surveyor Report (LS) for the import of masks and PPE products and other health equipment until June 30.
The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR), however, has urged the government to mass-produce COVID-19 equipment, instead of relying on imports.

INDONESIA IN URGENT NEED OF LAW ON PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION by Fardah

Jakarta, 13/5/2020 (Antara) - Many Indonesians have shown a preference for online shopping ever since the Indonesian Government imposed large-scale social distancing measures to restrict public movement and curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease, or COVID-19.

Data provided by ADA (Analytic Data Advertising) indicates a 300-400-percent increase in internet usage by adaptive shoppers last March, while internet use by WFH (work-from-home) professionals has climbed 400 percent.

Amid the jump in online shoppers, the Indonesian public was recently shocked to learn about the leaking of personal data of millions of users of e-commerce platform, Tokopedia.
According to some reports, a hacker put up a database containing the personal data of 91 million Tokopedia users for sale on the dark Web for US$5,000. Some reports say the data of 15 million users was breached.
Concerns over personal data safety have been gaining ground since the past several years, especially in view of the numerous credit and loan offers floating around via telephone and random short messages.

Last year, the Home Affairs Ministry, which is in charge of storing personal data of Indonesian citizens, admitted that at least 1,227 institutions, both government and private, have access to data on Indonesian citizenship.

However, private institutions still have to seek permission from the ministry to access citizens data, the then home affairs minister, Tjahjo Kumolo, said in July, 2019.

The protection of people's data is regulated in Law Number 24 of 2013 concerning Population Administration and the Minister of Home Affairs Regulation Number 61 of 2015, among others, but there is no strict sanction for any institution found leaking personal data.

Therefore, Sukamta, member of Commission I of the House of Representatives (DPR), has suggested that the Bill on Personal Data Protection (PDP) encompass regulations on obligations of data managers and sanctions for data breach.
He pointed to the recent data breach at Tokopedia while sharing his concerns.

Komodo National Park, Labuan Bajo deserted amid COVID-19 outbreak by Fardah

Jakarta , May 8, 2020 (ANTARA) - Marcia Stephanie, owner of iDive Komodo diving operator, sent her employees home, as her business lost customers following the temporary closure of the Komodo National Park as a measure to break the COVID-19 transmission chain.
“We have had no trip since March 22 when the Komodo National Park director announced the park’s closure due to COVID-19,” she told Bisnis journalist on April 6, 2020.
Her employees received full salaries for the last time in February, while they got just quarter of their salaries in April.
All diving operations in Komodo Island and Labuan Bajo in West Manggarai District, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province, closed since no tourist had visited the two destinations owing to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The Komodo National Park has been closed from March 22 to May 29, 2020, to support the central government’s policy of large-scale social distancing measure imposed following announcement of the country’s first confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 2, 2020.
The Komodo Labuan Bajo International Airport has also temporarily ceased its operations from April 24 to June 1, 2020, in line with restricting the movement of people.
The Komodo National Park and its adjacent Labuan Bajo, both with unique and enthralling scenery, fauna, and flora, were recently designated by the central government as premium tourist destinations.
However, with the global economy, including the tourism industry, bearing a severe brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of tourists visiting the two destinations has dropped drastically, up to some 50 percent, since February.
"The number of foreign tourists to Labuan Bajo has decreased by nearly 50 percent," Agustinus Rinus, head of the West Manggarai tourism office, stated on April 6.

INDONESIA'S TOURISM INDUSTRY PROJECTED TO REBOUND IN 2021 by Fardah

Jakarta, 7/5/2020 (Antara) - The tourism industry in several countries, including Indonesia, has been seriously crippled by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, compelling people globally to stay at home and forego traveling to prevent transmission of the lethal virus.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, Indonesia had outlined a target to receive at least 17 million foreign tourists in 2020.
However, in the wake of the viral outbreak, the number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia had dropped sharply in March to 470,900, or equal to the figure in 2007, according to the Central Statistics Office (BPS) on April 4, 2020.
The March figure indicated a 45.5-percent drop as compared to February and 64.11 percent from that in March 2019, according to BPS Head Suhariyanto.
A decline in the number of foreign tourist arrivals was recorded at nearly all main airports, with a 64.72-percent drop at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport, 75 percent decrease at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta Airport, and 64.11 percent decline at Kualanamu Airport, Medan.
The number of foreign tourist arrivals by sea also dropped drastically. Batam seaport in Riau Islands Province recorded a 75-percent drop, while a 92-percent decrease was witnessed at Tanjung Uban. A similar trend was observed among those coming by land, such as in Atambua and Entikong in Kalimantan that shares its border with Malaysia.

Based on nationality, the sharpest decline was observed in the number of tourists arriving from China, reaching 97.46 percent; followed by Hong Kong, down 96 percent; and Kuwait, down 89 percent, according to the BPS.

Bingka telur pandan by Nithaks

Bahan-bahan
4 butir telur ayam/bebek
100 gr gula pasir / 8 sdm
500 ml santan (me 2 kara + 370 ml air)
2-3 sdm tepung terigu
1/2 sdt garam
50 ml jus pandan/suji (dr 3 lebar daun pandan + 2 lembar daun suji)

cara membuat:

-  masukkan telur dan gula dalam wadah dan kocok
 -  tambahkan santan, jus pandan dan garam, kocok lagi
- tambahkan tepung terigu, kocok sampai rata
-saring adonan
- masukkan dalam loyang
kukus selama 30 menit, dengan api besar, dan tutup diberi serbet agar uap panas tidak menetes ke adonan

PREVENTING DENGUE, MALARIA TO AVOID DOUBLE HEALTH BURDEN AMID CORONA by Fardah

Jakarta, 1/5/2020 (Antara) - As Indonesia battles the novel coronavirus disease, another health threat looms for the tropical nation with the change in season that of vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever and malaria.

In the transitional period from rainy to dry season, which the country is currently experiencing, there is usually a high prevalence of both dengue and malaria, which translate into high morbidity and mortality for many patients around the world.

The main mosquito vector of malaria is Anopheles, whereas dengue is spread by Aedes aegypty. Dengue occurs year-round in Indonesia, with peak transmissions in the rainy season, from November through April.

Achmad Yurianto, the government spokesperson for COVID-19 response, has repeatedly urged the Indonesian people to remain vigilant against dengue.

"Combination of dengue and COVID-19 infections could be fatal for the health system," Yurianto, concurrently the Indonesian Health Ministrys director general for Disease Control and Prevention, said on April 29, 2020.
Moreover, dengue fever and COVID-19 are difficult to distinguish because they share clinical and laboratory features. There have been cases which were wrongly diagnosed as dengue, but later confirmed to be COVID-19.

Hence, as people practice social distancing by staying at home, he called for ridding homes of rubbish and destroying mosquito-breeding grounds, including clogged drains and unkept compounds.

In every house, office, school, and other public places, it is necessary to form a Jumantik, or larvae monitor, to ensure there are no mosquito larvae. If found, it needs to be destroyed immediately because environmental factors greatly influence the development of mosquitoes, Yurianto advised.

Stay at home and destroy mosquito nests, he reiterated.
Based on data from the Indonesian Health Ministry, the country has recorded 49,563 dengue cases and 310 deaths in the January 1-April 27, 2020 period.
Of the total cases, West Java has reported the highest number of infections at 6,337, followed by Bali (6,050), East Nusa Tenggara (4,679), Lampung (4,115), and East Java (3,715).
Forty-eight people have died of dengue in East Nusa Tenggara, 39 in Central Java, 33 in West Java, 31 in East Java, and 17 in Lampung.
During a recent visit to Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, Doni Monardo, chief of the Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 Response, urged the provincial government to remain vigilant for dengue fever outbreaks.
"We need to remind the NTT government to not only focus on COVID-19 cases, but also to anticipate the emergence of dengue during the transition season," said Doni Monardo, during a teleconference with the Deputy Governor of Nusa Tenggara, Josef A Nae Soi.