Especially for the first dose (vaccination), I think it (the coverage) is good. Please accelerate the second dose, and then the booster dose
Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has asked Aceh province to expedite its second dose vaccination coverage, which is still below 50 percent at 43.7 percent.



"Especially for the first dose (vaccination), I think it (the coverage) is good. Please accelerate the second dose, and then the booster dose," he said while virtually reviewing COVID-19 vaccinations of 12 provinces from the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java, on Thursday, as broadcast on the official Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel.



During the review, the President received a report from Aceh Police chief, Insp. Gen. Ahmad Haydar, regarding the development of COVID-19 vaccinations in Aceh province.



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Speaking via video conferencing, the police chief said that Aceh had 340 vaccination points as of Thursday and was targeting to administer a total of 60,500 doses and 11,650 doses to children.



As of Thursday, Aceh's first dose vaccination coverage had reached 89.16 percent of the targeted recipients, while second dose coverage had been recorded at 43.7 percent, and booster vaccination coverage had reached 0.6 percent coverage, he told the President.



Haydar further informed that the province has 377,848 vaccines in stock and requires more vaccines, which has been coordinated with the local Health Office.



He affirmed that aside from tightening control at the borders to prevent Omicron spread, Aceh Regional Police are continuing to support the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccinations.

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"In addition, we carried out vaccination competition in all precinct police (offices) under the Aceh Regional Police for the past two weeks so that vaccinations can be boosted," he added.



The Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, as part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19. President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program.



According to data provided by the Health Ministry, as of February 17, 2022, nearly 189,067,416 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 jab, 138,280,959 have been fully vaccinated, and 7,730,486 have received the booster shot.

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Translator: Gilang Galiartha, Raka Adji
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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