Hi folks, it’s been another crazy week here in Indonesia (when is it not?) with one telco provider disappearing from the subway, Covid-19 chief giving an admission one year too late, and a member of the parliament saying we should throw away our recently received vaccines.
XL-Sized Problem
Thousands of XL Axiata users in Jakarta found themselves without any mobile reception early this month while their MRT train went underground between Bundaran Senayan and Dukuh Atas. Several people then went to Twitter to ask @MRTJakarta what the deal was and sure enough, MRT Jakarta confirmed on Mar 9 that the subway operator was no longer working with XL Axiata. Prior to these Twitter replies, neither MRT Jakarta or XL Axiata made any announcement or warning that their cooperation had ended.
XL said MRT was charging telco operators something like Rp3.5-4 billion per two years for using their transceivers, which is way too expensive for them compared to the money they get out of the deal. XL tried to get MRT to lower their rental fee. The attempt failed and suffice to say if this was a musical, XL would be singing “there’s nothing left to say…. but… goodbye…”
Lockdown Would Have Worked
Covid-19 Task Force chief Doni Monardo finally admitted what many have suspected so far regarding the government’s handling of the pandemic. That locking down affected areas would have been far more effective in suppressing the spread of the virus and obviously the more appropriate action to take but the government would have had to cover the cost of residents staying at home as well as the cost of caring for pets. Something that they still aren’t willing to do. Instead, we’ve had to endure half hearted and hardly enforced activity restriction measures that have cost tens of thousands of lives including the lives of hundreds of medical professionals.
The budget allocated for handling the pandemic was over Rp695 trillion, 87% of which was earmarked for national economic recovery. As of today, around 25% of the cases are from Jakarta and 41.5% from the rest of the provinces in Java and Madura. The cost of locking down Jakarta for two weeks in March of 2020 would have been around Rp4 trillion according to the smart people at University of Indonesia. But one of the excuses we got whenever a lockdown was proposed back then was…
But of course the government had the money. It’s just that the former Minister for Social Affairs allegedly had been planning to siphon social assistance funds for personal gain alongside a certain red bull party even before the pandemic began. The money ended up going to several recipients including a government agency and a dangdut singer.
We Don’t Have Enough Vaccines
The Minister for Health, Budi G. Sadikin, responded to criticisms regarding the slow progress of vaccinations in the country, saying that while the government have secured more than enough doses of vaccines from several manufacturers for the entire country, the actual supply currently available is not yet enough to reach the necessary level of mass inoculation. He said that there are more countries currently without vaccines than those that have them and Indonesia is among the lucky ones to have started vaccinations back in February. Much more are expected to be delivered from July onwards.
Another Strain has Appeared
The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology announced this week that a smarter strain of SARS CoV 2, dubbed the N439K, has been detected in Indonesia among 48 patients tested dating back to December 2020, although the Health Ministry later confirmed that the first ones were detected in November 2020. This strain, which originated in the UK last year, is more resilient than other strains because even though it is not more lethal, it can attach itself to the human cells much more strongly and that antibodies from previously infected individuals do not recognize this strain.
The WHO apparently has yet to turn its attention to this variant according to the Health Ministry and there’s no word yet whether antibodies generated from vaccines are able to disarm this strain. The Ministry is advising the same measures to avoid catching this strain; washing hands with soap, social distancing, limiting mobility, avoiding crowds, and wearing masks.
Channeling Hamilton
A member of parliament from Commission IX, which deals with health and manpower, wants to make like Alexander Hamilton and throw away the AstraZeneca shots because it received a much speedier approval than ex-Health Minister Terawan A.P’s locally co-developed Nusantara vaccine.
The development of the local vaccine, in conjunction with American company Aivita Biomedical, had been criticized by the Food and Drug Oversight Agency (BPOM) as not having followed the proper procedures resulting in questionable findings. We will have more on this in an upcoming special edition of the Nuiceletter. Ooh, exciting, our first focus report!
Public Events are Back
Tourism minister Sandiaga Uno said music, culture, sports and entertainment events can be staged once more. In a statement issued on Indonesia’s National Music Day (Mar 9), Sandiaga claimed that the idea had garnered the support of the National Police chief, Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, although the Covid-19 task force has not commented on it.
Sandiaga said only events staged in the green and yellow zones will be permitted and of course …
Until Next Week
Boy, oh boy, will we ever catch a break?
See y’all in the next edition, hopefully with better news. Give us a follow on Twitter or subscribe to this Nuiceletter if you haven’t, share it to your friends if you love what we do, and send us feedback if you have any. Have a safe week, mask up and maintain a distance if you have to meet people.
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