The Indonesian Government is preparing to provide another booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in late 2022 to bolster community immunity and as part of anticipatory measures against the potential emergence of new coronavirus subvariants.
The decision on the provision of the additional booster was one of the results of the limited cabinet meeting on the evaluation of public activity restrictions (PPKM) chaired by President Joko Widodo at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Tuesday, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin informed here the same day.
“So, we discussed with the President, at the end of the year, we will carry out vaccinations, especially for groups with low immunity,” he said.
The determination of the targeted recipients for the provision of the additional booster dose will take into account the results of a serosurvey that will be held in November 2022.
“(It will determine) Which (are the) regions where immunity has decreased, then which people are at high risk. Later, we will provide vaccination to them to increase, prepare, and improve the immunity level of the community,” he informed.
According to Sadikin, Indonesia must prepare to anticipate the potential emergence of new COVID-19 subvariants in Europe and the United States due to the high number of infections.
Even though currently, the seven-day moving average of daily cases is still 4,683, or relatively lower than other countries, Indonesia will face the challenge six months from now or around January–March 2023, the minister said.
“If we can face it (the challenge) like now, Indonesia will be a country that can handle the pandemic for 12 (months) in a row,” he added.
For this reason, Indonesia must maintain the current level of immunity: 98.5 percent of Indonesian people have developed antibodies against COVID-19, based on the results of the serosurvey in July 2022.
He noted that the challenge of maintaining the level of immunity is different because the pace of vaccination is already sloping, and the infection rate is low.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021.
According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of August 23, 2022, as many as 203,146,408 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 170,727,467 have been administered the second dose, and 59,658,577 have taken the third or booster dose.
Source: Antara News