The patients were residents of the districts of Nabire, Jayapura, and Mimika, as well as Jayapura city, spokesperson for the Papua provincial government's COVID-19 task force, Silwanus Sumule, said in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, on Friday.
Three of the four COVID-19 patients reportedly suffered from diabetes, according to the doctors who treated them, he informed.
While the Indonesian government announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020, Papua reported its first COVID-19 cases on March 17, according to the task force.
As of October 1, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in the province increased from 6,306 on the previous day to 6,397, while the recovery rate went up from 3,975 to 4,006, Sumule informed.
Coronavirus infections initially emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019. Since then, COVID-19 has spread to over 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces of Indonesia, with a massive spurt in death toll.
To protect Indonesians from the deadly virus, the Indonesian government has been striving to obtain COVID-19 vaccine candidates through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms.
Indonesia, for instance, has collaborated with the Chinese government through Sinovac Biotech's candidate vaccine.
On September 28, 2020, Indonesia had confirmed that none of the volunteers participating in the Phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Bandung, West Java, had reportedly suffered grave side-effects after inoculation.
“The clinical trials have, so far, run smoothly, and we have not received any report on those experiencing serious effects. It means that the clinical trials have run smoothly with good results,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi had stated early this week.
Meanwhile, Bio Farma has increased its production capacity of the COVID-19 vaccine from 100 million doses to 250 million doses, she revealed, adding that delegates from the Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) will visit Sinovac's facilities in China, as part of precautionary measures instituted by the Indonesian government ahead of rolling out the vaccines in the country.
The Phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine began in August this year, and if the BPOM declares that the results demonstrate its safety, the vaccine can be mass produced and distributed to the public.
Indonesia is also leaving no stone unturned to develop its own vaccine to fight the virus.
In addition to the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, Indonesian scientists are currently working on a vaccine named after the country's national flag, Merah Putih (Red and White). (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
