Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Health Office of Jakarta cautioned that residents, who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, are at higher risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19 infections.

"The risk of hospitalization is three times (higher)," Head of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Immunization of the Jakarta Health Office Ngabila Salama stated here on Friday.

According to Salama, by completing the vaccination series, the level of protection and prevention against severity and death due to COVID-19 will be higher.

She explained that the first vaccine dose offers 1.5 folds higher protection. Meanwhile, the second dose offers two folds greater protection, while the third dose provides 4.5 times higher protection.

"People aged above 40, older adults aged above 60, people with one comorbidity or more have high risk of death due to COVID-19," she remarked.

Salama noted that among people who died due to COVID-19 in 2022, 15 percent were patients with diabetes mellitus, 15 percent were hypertension patients, 13 percent had chronic kidney failure, 11 percent were tuberculosis patients, and 10 percent were people with heart disease.

Of the figure, nine percent were people with cancer, five percent were individuals with chronic liver disorders, five percent were stroke patients, two percent were individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and two percent were people with HIV/AIDS.

"As many as nine percent (of the dead patients) have no history of comorbidities or unknown before, and no data on the (rest) four percent," she further noted.

According to data from the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPCPEN), as of December 15, 2022, the number of residents of Jakarta that had received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine reached 12.6 million, or 135.28 percent of the target.

Moreover, the second-dose coverage reached almost 11 million recipients, or 116 percent; while the third-dose coverage reached 5.2 million, or 71.37 percent; and the fourth-dose coverage reached 145 thousand, or 16.6 percent.

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Translator: Dewa Ketut, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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