Residents must get booster shots to help tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the spread of the Omicron variant, in Indonesia, Professor Tjandra Yoga Aditama from the University of Indonesia’s Faculty of Medicine has said.
“Booster vaccine dose is surely beneficial, and residents must promptly get their third dose. Despite Indonesia and other countries continuing to record COVID-19 Omicron positive cases, we hope we can control the infection spread,” Aditama stated in an e-mail received on Wednesday.
The government must not neglect its obligation to allocate vaccines for residents who are yet to get their first two doses while promoting the booster dose, he added.
“Because we still have at least 43 percent of the total population and 56 percent of the elderly residents not getting their second vaccine dose. We need to expedite vaccination drives to ensure they will get their vaccine sooner,” he said.
According to Health Ministry data, as of Tuesday (January 11, 2022), at least 68.60 percent of the targeted elderly population have received their first dose, and only 43.94 percent of the elderly have received their second dose, the academic noted.
He then highlighted the importance of contact tracing to detect sources of local transmission and the spread of the variant.
He also advised the government to boost COVID-19 testing to locate and isolate COVID-19 positive residents who are asymptomatic to prevent the virus from spreading to more locations.
“We must also enhance the monitoring of overseas arrivals, and utilize the International Health Regulation instrument to inform other countries about the Omicron variant detected in Indonesia and perform the contact-tracing process to detect the probable source,” Aditama said.
The preparedness of the national primary, secondary, and tertiary health services as well as intensive risk communication and prompt COVID-19 database updating are necessary for proper decision-making, he added.
Source: Antara News