A researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Amin Soebandrio accentuated the importance of the COVID-19 full dose vaccination coverage for people in Indonesia.

A minimum 70 percent of the Indonesian population must be vaccinated, with a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to form herd immunity in the country.

“The ability to form herd immunity is important for now,” Soebandrio said here on Friday.

However, the immunity developed from the COVID-19 vaccination does not last forever to protect people from the infection. Over time, the immunity that is formed from both the COVID-19 vaccinations and natural infection will decrease.

According to research, immunity after a full dose of COVID-19 vaccination can last up to 12 months. After that, the immunity will decrease, he remarked.

However, the body that already has the ability to form antibodies will have memory cells to re-form immunity to fight the same virus.

Hence, if people get infected by the coronavirus, their memory cells will remember and try to form immunity to fight the virus infection.

“Immunologically, our immunity has a memory that can remember. That is an important factor that later if we are infected with the same or similar virus, the body will form immunity more quickly,” Soebandrio noted.

Hence, in the midst of the limited availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, he emphasized that vaccination priority at this time is accelerating COVID-19 immunization through administration of a complete dose rather than a booster injection.

By forming herd immunity in the community, people can build a shield to prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from finding new human hosts to infect the body and mutate.

Currently, the Indonesian government continues to bring in COVID-19 vaccines from various sources to meet the needs of the community and increase the achievement of COVID-19 vaccination. The government is also developing a domestic vaccine called Merah Putih vaccine.

Source: Antara News