Jakarta (ANTARA) - The number of Indonesian citizens who have received the third dose or the first booster of the COVID-19 vaccine has reached 65.78 million as of Tuesday, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force reported.

According to data received from the task force here, the number of third dose recipients swelled by 61,908 on Tuesday to touch 65,783,238, or 28.03 percent of the target.

Meanwhile, with 25,079 citizens receiving their second shot on Tuesday, the number of citizens who have received the second dose or have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 reached 172,124,844.

Further, the number of first dose recipients grew by 17,430 to 205,266,216.

As for the fourth dose or second booster, which is currently being administered to health workers, the total number of recipients reached 704,880.

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 234,666,020 citizens in the country.

The task force emphasized the importance of vaccinations and health protocol implementation to curb the transmission of COVID-19 and its variants.

Related news: Govt needs to step up third dose vaccination rate

According to government spokesperson for COVID-19 handling, Wiku Adisasmito, regional governments need to promote the importance of health protocols and vaccinations in preventing COVID-19 spread.

Meanwhile, deputy for the coordination of health quality improvement and population development at the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture, Agus Suprapto, highlighted that the pandemic has not yet ended. Therefore, the community must continue to strengthen the health protocols as part of the individual and collective responsibility for preventing the spread of COVID-19.

He explained that personal responsibility refers to complying with the health protocols while collective responsibility pertains to getting vaccinated, starting from the first dose to the booster doses, for building herd immunity.

"Pay attention to the government's appeal regarding the importance of strengthening the health protocols and also COVID-19 vaccinations as an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Indonesia," Suprapto remarked.

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Translator: Wuryanti Puspitasari, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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