"We continue to push and accelerate booster vaccinations among the community. This is needed to curb and prevent COVID-19 transmission from expanding," Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution said here on Monday.
Nasution pointed out that based on the Medan Health Office’s data, as of Saturday (February 26, 2022), the city's booster vaccinations coverage has reached only 9.43 percent.
Meanwhile, first dose vaccinations have reached 94.59 percent and second dose vaccinations have reached 82.94 percent of the targeted 1.9 million Medan residents, he noted.
Head of the Anatomical Pathology Section, Faculty of Medicine, North Sumatra Muhammadiyah University, Dr. Humairah Medina Liza Lubis, MKed (PA), SpPA, said that booster vaccinations should be intensively carried out to bolster protection for the community, which began to decline after the first and second doses.
"I hope that everyone will participate in making this government program a success in efforts to control COVID-19, and don't fall for hoaxes circulating on social media," she remarked.
To prevent hoaxes from spreading, Lubis urged people to look for information related to COVID-19 and vaccinations on official websites.
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 28, 2022, nearly 190,969,599 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 jab, 144,458,756 have been fully vaccinated, and 10,187,505 have received the booster shot.
The government commenced booster vaccinations for the general public on January 12, 2022.
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Translator: Muhammad Said, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
Copyright © ANTARA 2022
