For the first and second dose vaccines, in total, have reached 73 percent (coverage). However, our first booster dose (coverage) is still quite low, 23.13 percent.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Health Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril has appealed to people to get the COVID-19 booster vaccine without delay as part of preparations to enter the endemic stage.

"For the first and second dose vaccines, in total, have reached 73 percent (coverage). However, our first booster dose (coverage) is still quite low, 23.13 percent," he noted during an online broadcast here on Monday.

The government is continuing to work hard to administer the COVID-19 booster to more people, he affirmed.

COVID-19 is still spreading in the community, Syahril emphasized. However, with the protection from the booster dose, the potential of transmission will be lower. In addition, the booster dose will minimize the effects of COVID-19 transmission.

Meanwhile, government spokesperson for COVID-19 handling Reisa Broto Asmoro emphasized that the booster dose is, in fact, increasingly needed as community activities and mobility return to normalcy.

According to her, vaccines, especially the booster dose, are the main shield to protect from COVID-19 threats.

She further noted that if people do not get the booster dose, their immunity will be lost and return to the initial level before they took the first dose. The high number of people who have not received the booster dose is also one of the reasons why Indonesia cannot shed the pandemic status yet.

Asmoro said that the requirements to leave the pandemic phase and enter the endemic stage, based on the World Health Organization’s criteria, cover vaccinations, testing and sequencing, health system, preparations for a spike in cases, prevention and control, and dissemination of information.

"For vaccination, the requirement is: it must have reached 100 percent (coverage) for priority groups. Then, 97 percent (coverage) for older adults. These are what we must pursue to be free from the pandemic," she said.

To this end, the spokesperson invited people who have not received the booster dose to immediately seek information regarding the nearest health facility that provides the vaccination.

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Translator: Kuntum Khaira, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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