SOE Minister Erick Thohir (second from left) led the launch of the BUMN Plasma program for Indonesia at Pertamina Headquarters in Jakarta, Monday (8/2) with Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Jusuf Kalla, President Director of Pertamina Nicke Widyawati, and Telkom Human Capital Management Director Afriwandi (center at the back). 

Telkom manifests its support by launching the 117 ext 5 call center service in cooperation with the National Task Force for Covid-19 Handling of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and PMI. The call center started to operate on 8 February 2021 and it serves to receive inbound call from people looking for information on convalescent plasma donors, making it easier for people who voluntarily want to register as donors, as well as outbound calls to find potential donors.

Jakarta, 8 February 2021 – Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir launched the BUMN Plasma program for Indonesia at Pertamina Headquarters in Jakarta (8/2) as part of the National Convalescent Plasma Donor Movement which Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia Ma'ruf Amin initiated. Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Jusuf Kalla, President Director of Pertamina Nicke Widyawati, and Telkom Human Capital Management Director Afriwandi also attended the event. The program, held in 34 provinces, is a manifestation of the SOE Ministry and SOEs’ consistency to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

“The SOEs have huge potential and resources, evenly distributed in all provinces in Indonesia and they must be at the frontline of every opportunity. Therefore, in collaboration with PMI, we launched this program to encourage SOEs employees and their family members who have had Covid-19 to save Covid-19 patients. I hope in the future those who have been infected and healed and meet the requirements, of course, will donate their plasma to others. We, the SOEs, will always be ready to help with all the resources we have," SOE Minister Erick Thohir said.

As a state-owned enterprise, PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (Telkom) is fully committed to support the Plasma BUMN Untuk Indonesia (SOEs Plasma for Indonesia) which the SOE Minister initiated and the National Convalescent Plasma Donor Movement. Telkom manifests its support by launching the 117 ext 5 call center service in cooperation with the National Task Force for Covid-19 Handling of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) and PMI. The call center started to operate on 8 February 2021 and it serves to receive inbound calls from people looking for information on convalescent plasma donors, making it easier for people who voluntarily want to register as donors, as well as outbound calls to find potential donors.

Telkom Enterprise & Business Service Director, Edi Witjara said, "Handling Covid-19 and national economic recovery continue to be the government focus with efforts rolled out in various ways. Having the 117 ext 5 call center will make it easier for the public to find out more about convalescent plasma and to register if they want to become a donor, they will get information on the process to donate PMI's UDD (Blood Donor Unit) in various cities in Indonesia. We hope it can accelerate the convalescent plasma collection from donors who can help people affected by Covid-19.”

Edi also said that the convalescent plasma call center has operators and verifiers who have been provided with soft skills training from Telkom’s subsidiary Infomedia and hard skills from PMI and BNPB. The call center is located at the BNPB Office in Jalan Pramuka, East Jakarta, and is equipped with an internet network and work stations, PCs (Personal Computers), headsets and others.

Convalescent plasma transfusion is one of the additional therapies to treat COVID-19 patients with severe and critical symptoms, as an effort to increase the recovery rate and reduce mortality in Covid-19 patients. The donor requirements include, Covid-19 survivors who have been tested negative within 14 days to 3 months after they were declared recovered and negative, aged 18-60 years, weighed more than 55 kilograms, preferably male (for women preferably those who have never been pregnant), have not had blood transfusions for the last 6 months, has a letter stating of their recovery from a doctor and has not shown any symptoms for at least 14 days.