The Covid-19 pandemic caused two crises at once, namely health and economy, in hundreds of countries. President Jokowi emphasized that balance was required to deal with the two crises.
By
KOMPAS TEAM
·6 minutes read
KOMPAS/ANGGER PUTRANTO
President Joko Widodo greets residents at the Rogojampi Public Service Market, Banyuwangi, East Java, Thursday (25/6/2020). The public service market that provides 98 document management services is located in the middle of the market and has been in operation under new normal health protocol standards.
SURABAYA, KOMPAS – The Covid-19 pandemic has not only caused a health crisis in many countries but has also triggered severe economic crisis. The handling of these two crises, namely health and economic crisis, must be carried out in a balanced manner.
President Joko Widodo said the handling of the two crises was like driving a vehicle by using the brake and accelerator in a balanced manner. We cannot focus fully on handling the health crisis while forgetting the economic problems. Vice versa. "We cannot speed up the handling of the economy, but put the brakes on health," said the President on Thursday (25/6/2020), while giving a speech at the Grahadi State Building in Surabaya, East Java.
According to Jokowi, the health crisis caused by Covid-19 was felt by 215 countries. On the other hand, economic pressures as a result of the pandemic have caused some countries to experience negative economic growth this year.
What does that mean? Demand [demand], supply and production have been disrupted.
He added the world bears a greater burden than the Great Depression of 1930. "What does that mean? Demand [demand], supply and production have been disrupted," said the President.
On Thursday, there were 1,178 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 throughout Indonesia. Most cases occurred in East Java (247 cases), Jakarta (196 cases), South Sulawesi (103 cases), North Maluku (80 cases) and Central Java (78 cases). With these additions, there are a total of 50,187 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia.
The number of deaths increased by 47 cases, totaling 2,620. On the other hand, there were an addition of 791 patient recoveries, resulting in the total number of recovered patients to amount to 20,449 people. As of June 25, there were 19,510 specimens being tested, approaching the target set by the President, that is 20,000 specimens per day.
Globally, according to worldometers.info, as of Thursday, there was a total of more than 9. 5 million people worldwide had been infected with the new coronavirus, which causes COVID-19. More than 486,000 of them have died.
World map showing official number of coronavirus deaths per country, as of May 2 at 1100 GMT
Treatment improved
Specifically for East Java, the President asked for the more intensive control of COVID-19. He instructed the local administration to massively increase testing, aggressively track close contacts and strengthen curative action.
East Java is highlighted because of the highest addition of daily cases in Indonesia. Currently, in East Java, there are 10,263 positive cases. A total of 767 people died and 3,236 people recovered.
Chairperson of East Java Covid-19 Task Force Curative Division, Joni Wahyuhadi, said that the ratio of mortality in the province, which reached 7.4 percent, continues to be a concern.
Meanwhile, East Java’s Sidoarjo Covid-19 Task Force said there would be an additional 50,000 residents that would take rapid tests next week. "So far, the rapid testing now only covers around 46,000 people from the target of at least 90,000 people," said head of Sidoarjo Health Agency, Syaf Satriawarman.
The high mortality due to Covid-19 in East Java, according to an epidemiologist at Airlangga University, Windhu Purnomo, shows that hospital capacity is inadequate compared to the number of cases.
He added that the spread of cases in East Java, especially in Surabaya, happened quickly, thus the number of patients exploded and exceeded the hospital\'s capacity. "Now there has been improvement, as shown by the value of Rt [virus reproduction number] in East Java for five consecutive days that is under 1. If the number of tests continue to increase and the people are disciplined in applying the health protocols, the situation will improve," said Windhu.
Kupang Biomolecular Laboratory, conducts PCR tests from 22 districts / cities in NTT
Effort to Create Vaccine
Researchers and the global pharmaceutical industry continue their works to create a COVID-19 vaccine. Until yesterday, dozens out of around 100 prospective vaccines being developed in a number of countries, such as Britain, China, Canada, and the United States, have progressed in testing.
Some prospective vaccines are being tested on monkeys and pigs. There are also prospective vaccines that have passed one or two stages of testing on humans, such as in China, the US and Canada. US National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director
Anthony Fauci expressed his optimism over the progress of the prospective vaccine developed by a research team from Oxford University, England, and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. According to him, the vaccine can be available in late 2020, or no later than 2021.
Scientists at Oxford in collaboration with AstraZeneca tested a prospective vaccine which at the beginning of its development was named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. At present, the prospective vaccine was being tested on humans after the testing on pigs and monkeys gave encouraging results.
The results of further study of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 released by the British Pirbright Institute say that the provision of first dose plus a dosage of booster results in a stronger immune response than the provision of a single dose. This shows that using two doses is more effective.
According to data collected through experiments on six monkeys, the animals given one dose of vaccine develop antibodies within 14 days. After that, all animals developed protective antibodies within 28 days.
AP PHOTO/LAURENT CIPRIANI
French President Emmanuel Macron listens to a researcher as he visits an industrial development laboratory at French drugmaker\'s vaccine unit Sanofi Pasteur plant in Marcy-l\'Etoile, near Lyon, central France, Tuesday, June 16, 2020.The visit comes after rival pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca this weekend announced a deal to supply 400 million vaccine doses to EU countries, including France.
The news makes Prince William, the grandson of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, to the research site to meet the team, Sarah Gilbert and the leader of the clinical test team Andrew Pollar. William also met the volunteers of the clinical test.
In China, a prospective vaccine developed by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Academy of Military Sciences was approved by the National Medical Products Administration to enter the second phase of tests on humans. The prospective vaccine is the eighth developed by China. Called ARCoV, the prospective vaccine uses mRNA technology, which is also used by pharmaceutical companies Moderna, US and CureVac, Germany.
In Indonesia, in mid-June, Minister of Research and Technology/National Agency for Research and Innovation Bambang Brodjonegoro said vaccine development was focused on using virus strains found in the country.
From whole genome sequencing in Indonesia, 13 strains of the virus that cause COVID-19 were identified. Two of these strains derived from Europe, while eleven other strains had not been identified.
The government\'s main strategy, according to Bambang, is to fund the Eijkman Institute of Molecular Biology in developing vaccines. Another strategy is doing a collaboration with China and South Korea. PT Bio Farma has collaborated with Sinovac from China. Its development is entering clinical tests. PT Kalbe Farma is collaborating with South Korea to carry out clinical tests.
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