The Jakarta provincial government is accelerating the fourth dose or second booster dose vaccination for older adults and health workers to curb the spread of COVID-19, especially among people with comorbidities.
“Almost all of the COVID-19-positive people who died in Jakarta had severe comorbidities, most of which were non-communicable diseases,” Head of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Immunization Section of the Jakarta Health Office, Ngabila Salama, stated here on Thursday.
Non-communicable diseases include diabetes mellitus, hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and chronic kidney failure. Meanwhile, the other comorbid chronic diseases include tuberculosis (TB) and HIV.
According to the Health Ministry’s data, as of Tuesday (December 6, 2022), the first dose vaccination coverage has reached 134.58 percent, or 12,627,476 people out of a target of 10 million residents in Jakarta.
Meanwhile the second dose vaccination coverage reached 116.24 percent, or 10,906,730 people, and the third dose or first booster dose reached 55.95 percent, or 5,249,845 people.
As for the fourth dose, the total number of recipients, comprising health workers and older adults, reached 119,888 people.
Among older adults, the fourth dose coverage has only reached 6.1 percent from a total of 761,279 targeted older adults. Meanwhile, among health workers, the coverage has reached 66.02 percent from the target of 112,301 people.
Older adults can get the second booster shot six months after they receive the first booster despite not having owned a second booster vaccination ticket in the PeduliLindungi application.
The Jakarta Health Office has reopened the evening vaccination service at 44 community health centers (puskesmas) and other designated locations from Monday to Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time. The service is provided to boost the third-dose and fourth-dose vaccination coverage, including by targeting older adults and health workers.
Vaccination services on weekends are also provided at several locations, such as puskesmas, regional public hospitals, and other vaccination centers.
Source: Antara News