PALANGKA RAYA – EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION BUREAU. Deputy Governor Edy Pratowo opened and led a Coordination Meeting on Handling Covid-19 and Acceleration of Booster Vaccination Entering the Month of Ramadan and Eid Al-Fitr 1443 H in Central Kalimantan Province, located in the Jayang Tingang Hall, Floor II, Governor’s Office, Thursday (24/3/2022).

In his direction, Deputy Governor Edy Pratowo said that there were 3 important agenda discussed at this coordination meeting, namely the anticipation of the implementation of health protocols during the fasting month and Eid, the anticipation of the spread of the Deltacron Virus in the Central Kalimantan Province, and the acceleration of the implementation of booster vaccination.

Regarding the anticipation of the implementation of health protocols during the fasting month and Eid, the Deputy Governor explained that the development of Covid-19 in the Central Kalimantan Province is currently relatively very well controlled.

“The daily confirmation status in 2022 reached its peak on February 19, 2022, at 541 confirmed cases and after that it continued to decline. In fact, in the last 10 days, it was relatively stable below 100 cases, where for March 23, 2022, there were 87 new confirmed cases. In addition, active cases reached a peak on February 26, 2022, at 4,128 cases, and on March 23, 2022, at 1,159 cases,” he explained.

The decline in the average number of Covid-19 cases in the country has become the basis for government policy making, including policies related to the fasting month and Eid in 2022. The new policies include, among other things, that places of worship can operate as usual in line with the MUI Fatwa, but people must comply with health protocols. In addition, the government also allows people to go home for Eid in 2022 with the condition that the people must have received booster vaccination.

In response to this, the Deputy Governor asked all ranks of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force in the Central Kalimantan Province to continue to work optimally to control Covid-19 cases while still complying with health protocols, especially wearing masks, so that the risk of the virus transmission can still be prevented.

The Deputy Governor also asked the regency / municipality governments in Central Kalimantan to increase the supply of masks and distribute them evenly to the community, so that activities during the month of Ramadan can still be carried out.

Furthermore, regarding the anticipation of the spread of the Deltacron Virus in the Central Kalimantan Province, the Deputy Governor asked the public and related parties in Central Kalimantan to remain vigilant even though there have been no reports of cases of this combined Omicron and Delta virus variant in Indonesia, including in Central Kalimantan.  Moreover, according to the Deputy Governor, currently the government has issued a policy of relaxing protocols for travellers, including foreign travelers.

Lastly, regarding the acceleration of the implementation of booster vaccination, the Deputy Governor emphasized that vaccination is very important for accelerating the recovery of social life and economic recovery.

“We are grateful that the achievement of dose 1 vaccination in all regencies/municipality has reached more than 80%. However, for the achievement of dose 2 vaccination, there are still 7 regencies whose achievements are below 70%, namely Katingan Regency (69.46%), East Kotawaringin Regency (68.67%), South Barito Regency (68.44%), North Barito (67.73%), Pulang Pisau Regency (67.06%), Murung Raya Regency (66.66%), and Gunung Mas Regency (53.53%),” said the Deputy Governor in his directive.

However, he added, using manual data, there are 4 regencies that have not achieved 70% of dose 1 vaccination, namely Katingan District (69.46%), East Kotawaringin District (68.67%), South Barito District (68.44%), and Gunung Mas Regency (56.57%).

Meanwhile, the province’s booster vaccination achievement only reached 8.36%, where Palangka Raya achieved the highest achievement with 17.63% of booster vaccination.

In his direction, the Deputy Governor also asked the regents/mayor and the members of Regional Leadership Coordination Forum at regencies/municipality level to pay attention to the results of the evaluation of vaccination achievements per district throughout Central Kalimantan in the implementation of accelerating the increase in vaccination achievements.

“The regents/mayor should not hesitate to conduct vaccination because the stock of vaccines in all regencies/municipality is still available, with the current stock of 272,529 doses,” explained Deputy Governor Edy Pratowo.

“I ask that within 1 week before the Fasting Month, there will be a significant and even increase in vaccination achievements, especially in districts that are still low,” he concluded.

Being present directly at the Jayang Tingang Hall were the representative of the Chair of the Central Kalimantan Provincial House of Representatives, the representatives of Central Kalimantan Leadership Coordination Forum, the Assistant for Government and Public Welfare, as well as a number of heads of related regional government institutions of Central Kalimantan Provincial Government. Meanwhile, the regents/mayor and the members of Regional Leadership Coordination Forum at regency/municipality level were present virtually via video conference.

This coordination meeting was coupled with presentations from the Head of Central Kalimantan Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Ilham Djaya, Dirsamapta Central Kalimantan Police representing the Chief of Central Kalimantan Police, Head of Sub-division for Operations representing the Regional Military Commander of 102/Pjg, and Assistant for Attorney General of Central Kalimantan representing Attorney General of Central Kalimantan, as well as presentations from other members of Regional Leadership Coordination Forum. A number of regencies/municipality also delivered presentations regarding the development of handling Covid-19 and the obstacles encountered in the implementation of the vaccination program in their regions. (ran/fen/fer/transl.feb)