The COVID-19 vaccination rate has slowed in several parts of West Java province towards the end of 2021, head of the vaccination division of the province’s COVID-19 Handling Task Force Dedi Supandi has said.

The vaccination rate in West Java has declined from 464 thousand doses per day during the peak of vaccinations to 160 thousand to 200 thousand doses per day, he informed here on Thursday.

Although vaccinations have slowed, the province’s achievement rate is still relatively high compared to other provinces, he pointed out.

“There is no shortage of vaccine stocks that is causing the decline. There are lots of vaccines in West Java, even a surplus of two million. However, we still have the highest achievement with 162 thousand doses per day compared to East Java with 140 thousand doses or even Jakarta with only 25 thousand doses,” he said.

However, given the current vaccination coverage, West Java is not expected to achieve herd immunity by the end of 2021, he noted.

There are a number of factors responsible for the decline in vaccinations, such as people facing trouble in finding vaccination spots, Supandi said.

“The second factor is that some of the elderly and people living in the village do not have identity cards which is a mandatory requirement to receive vaccinations,” he explained.

He said the task force has sought a meeting between the social service and the population and civil registration service to resolve the problem.

“Maybe the solution is to gather people with no identity cards to give them vaccination as well as issuing new identity cards for them,” Supandi said.

To increase the achievement of COVID-19 vaccinations in West Java, he said the task force will prioritize the elderly since they are the most vulnerable group and most of them also have no identity cards.

“As in Sumedang district, the vaccine achievement is good, but they have low coverage in elderly vaccinations. Meanwhile, the highest elderly vaccination coverage is in Sukabumi district,” he added.

Source: Antara News