According to task force data received by ANTARA here on Thursday, the number of citizens who have received the third dose increased by 567,027 on Thursday, taking the total number of booster recipients to 40,942,530.
Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine doses under the government's national vaccination program, swelled by 174,677 to reach 165,600,933 on Thursday.
As per the data, the number of people who received the first shot remained unchanged at 199,346,528.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.
Earlier, the spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination at the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, had expressed the hope that the number of booster dose recipients would continue to increase to strengthen the protection of people during the 2022 Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
Vaccinations have contributed significantly to efforts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, she noted.
The government is targeting to reach 80 percent coverage for booster vaccinations by the end of May 2022.
Tarmizi said that all parties must learn from previous experience and remain alert for a potential increase in COVID-19 cases after the long holiday and religious celebrations.
She recalled that the first COVID-19 wave, caused by the Alpha variant, occurred after the Christmas and New Year long holidays. The second wave, caused by the Delta variant, occurred after the 2021 long holiday and Eid al-Fitr, and the recent third wave, caused by the Omicron variant, occurred after the 2021 Christmas and the 2022 New Year holidays.
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Translator: Hreeloita Dharma, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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