We have to ensure that people are ready to face this, whether we want to or not.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo cautioned the public to stringently implement health protocols despite being vaccinated to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases in the nation.

"The government has issued a regulation concerning crowding and activities. Please comply with this to maintain the public's safety and health," he noted through a statement on Thursday.

While inspecting the mass vaccination conducted at the Jababeka Convention Center, Bekasi, West Java, Prabowo called on the public to be ready to face a spike in COVID-19 cases, both of the old variant and the Omicron strain.

To this end, one of the steps to be taken is expediting vaccination, as it can bolster immunity.

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According to Prabowo, the police and all officials within the regional leadership coordination forum (forkopimda) will continue to accelerate vaccination.

This is because the number of daily cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 had passed the peak of the Delta variant's daily figures.

"We have to ensure that people are ready to face this, whether we want to or not," he remarked.

"The strategy that we put forward is how to ensure that the people have truly been administered the first, second, and third (booster) doses of the vaccine," he stated.

In the third wave of COVID-19, while the daily positive figure is high, the death rate seems to be declining, he remarked.

It is estimated that the number of COVID-19 cases in several regions, especially in Jakarta, had peaked since the figure continues to decline.

Prabowo expects that within the next week, one region would have overcome the crisis and other places will then follow suit.

To this end, he urged unvaccinated people to immediately head to vaccine centers that have been readied.
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Translator: Laly Rahmawati, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Suharto
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