PMK Task Force Officially Formed, Tomorrow Fly Directly To 19 Red Zone Provinces

Livestock indicated for FMD are injected with a vaccine. (Between)

JAKARTA - Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) Lt. Gen. Suharyanto said the Nail and Mouth Disease Task Force (PMK) ensured acceleration in 19 red zone provinces.

"Our Central Task Force will also go directly to the field to tour 19 main provinces starting tomorrow morning," said Suharyanto, who also serves as Head of the PMK Task Force at an online coordination meeting followed in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, June 24.

Suharyanto said the arrival of the PMK Central Task Force in addition to carrying out the President's direction, also together with the Regional PMK Task Force to monitor the handling so as not to cause panic and not cause a shortage of prices for basic public needs, especially the price of meat.

In the same event, the Coordinator of the Expert Team for the PMK Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, also explained that there are around 800,000 doses of vaccine available, and 655,000 doses have been distributed to the majority areas.

"We hope that the total, 800,000, can be finished being injected next week, because the President already knows about this amount and there are 3 million in total, and there are still 2.2 million. before Eid al-Adha," he said.

In addition, Wiku said another acceleration effort was to integrate the existing post into the PMK Task Force post, to monitor livestock traffic.

He explained that veterinary authority (POV) officials related to treatment and vaccination were only found in 25 provinces and 93 regencies/cities. Wiku asked other provinces and regions to determine the POV.

"In order to support treatment and vaccination efforts, this must be supported by veterinary personnel, including to veterinarians in the area so that veterinarians, ASN or not, so that in the vaccination treatment area we immediately have qualified human resources in the area," he said.

Finally, reporting on testing, tracing, and vaccination of livestock through iSIKHNAS is integrated with the United Against COVID-19 application. It is targeted that the data integration will be carried out in the next 12 weeks.