East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa has appealed to all district heads and mayors in the province to accelerate second and third or booster COVID-19 vaccinations after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
“The main goal is to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases, especially in East Java,” she explained at the Grahadi State Building, here on Friday.
Vaccination acceleration is essential to ensure all regions in the province can enforce Level 1 public activity restrictions (PPKM), she said.
The Indonesian government has regulated that regions can implement Level 1 PPKM if their first dose vaccination coverage has reached at least 70 percent.
Vaccine stocks in East Java are sufficient to accelerate vaccinations, Parwansa affirmed.
The vaccination acceleration will be prioritized for districts and cities that are still implementing Level 2 and 3 PPKM, with the target of surpassing 70 percent coverage for second dose vaccinations.
Currently, of the 38 districts and cities in East Java, 12 districts and cities are enforcing Level 1 PPKM, 25 districts and cities are implementing Level 2 PPKM, while one region is still enforcing Level 3 PPKM.
Meanwhile, the first dose vaccination coverage in East Java has reached 92.83 percent, the second dose coverage has touched 78.65 percent, and the third dose coverage has been recorded at 5.96 percent.
The regions that have recorded the highest booster vaccination coverage are Mojokerto city (47.88 percent), Surabaya city (43.83 percent), Madiun city (32.55 percent), and Malang city (28.69 percent).
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.
According to the Health Ministry data, as of Friday (May 6, 2022), as many as 199,292,644 Indonesians have received the first dose, 165,616,148 have received the second dose, and 40,971,055 have received the booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Source: Antara News