Since the population density and infection rate of regions in Indonesia are different from one another, the effort to achieve herd immunity should be focused on densely-populated regions with a high infection rate.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia’s COVID-19 vaccination program for citizens must focus on densely-populated areas with a high infection rate, an official from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said here Tuesday.

“Since the population density and infection rate of regions in Indonesia are different from one another, the effort to achieve herd immunity should be focused on densely-populated regions with a high infection rate,” Chief of LIPI's Laboratory for Applied Genetic Engineering and Protein Design Wien Kusharyoto said.

Herd immunity can be soon realized through vaccination, he added.

The herd immunity that will be achieved is 70-80 percent of the total population of a region, he informed.

To that end, the Indonesian government has made an endeavor to launch a vaccination program to create herd immunity as part of efforts to control COVID-19 cases, he said.

Meanwhile, spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Wiku Adisasmito, said the COVID-19 vaccination program will hopefully result in specific immunity, both for individuals as well as the community, against the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19.

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"As such, we hope there will be double protection and herd immunity and the entire community will eventually not be exposed to COVID-19," he remarked.

Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has revealed that 179 thousand out of the 1.48 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered across Indonesia as of January 25, 2021.

Indonesia is among the ASEAN member states to roll out a COVID-19 vaccination campaign at the start of this year, with President Joko Widodo getting the first shot of the Sinovac vaccine on January 13, 2021, Hartarto noted.

“We hope the (vaccination) target can be achieved. At this moment, about 179 thousand people have been vaccinated,” he said here on Tuesday.

He said the first phase of the free COVID-19 vaccine program, which will last from January to April, 2021, will target 1.3 million medical workers, 17.4 million public service officers, and 21.5 million senior citizens.

The second phase of the program, which will be conducted from April, 2021 to March, 2022, will cover 63.9 million vulnerable people living in areas with the highest risk of COVID-19 transmission and another 77.4 million people.

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Translator: Martha Herlinawati S/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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