Regional governments urged to broaden booster vaccination coverage

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Government spokesperson for COVID-19 Handling Wiku Adisasmito called on the regional governments to expand the coverage for third dose or booster vaccination.

“I urge all regional governments to ensure the availability of booster vaccines and immediately identify and encourage the people, who have not been administered the booster vaccine,” he stated.

During the press conference on developments in COVID-19 handling in Indonesia streamed online on Thursday, Adisasmito pressed for continued efforts for broadening the coverage for booster vaccination.

One of the methods is by enforcing the law that mandates people to get the booster dose vaccination in order to access public facilities.

“However, once again, the awareness for booster vaccine comes back to each individual as a responsibility to protect themselves and others,” he remarked.

He reminded the public not to underestimate COVID-19 since the number of deaths in Indonesia was still relatively high.

“The weekly mortality rate in Indonesia is still above 100 people. Death due to COVID-19 is not just a meaningless number,” he emphasized.

Through vaccination, people can prevent exacerbation of the condition or death as a result of COVID-19, Adisasmito stressed.

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“In principle, prevention is better than medication. Hence, the public’s role to remind one another is the most effective method that we can apply together,” he remarked.

According to the COVID-19 Task Force’s data on Thursday, 62,968,993 people had received the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Hence, the number of people administered the booster reached 26.83 percent out of the total COVID-19 vaccination target of 234,666,020 people.

Every policy that the government formulates in pandemic handling aims to safeguard the public from COVID-19, Adisasmito noted.

“To this end, the public’s participation to comply with the recommendation set by the government is very important,” he remarked.

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