Jakarta (ANTARA) – Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto highlighted that only two regions outside Java had achieved a 70-percent vaccination target for the second dose.

“Only two regions outside Java have recorded a vaccination coverage of above 70 percent for the second dose, specifically Riau Islands, with 85.6 percent, and East Kalimantan, with 71.2 percent, while Bangka Belitung had recorded 68.3 percent; North Kalimantan, 65.9 percent; and the rest below 60 percent,” Hartarto noted in a press statement on Monday.

The government continues to encourage the acceleration of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination, especially to protect the elderly group and people with comorbidities.

Hartarto remarked that the booster vaccination or the third dose also should be accelerated as a precautionary measure against an increase in positive cases due to the potential spread of the Omicron variant in areas outside Java.

Meanwhile, 90 districts and cities outside Java have implemented the Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) level 1, while 259 districts and cities have applied PPKM level 2; and 37 districts and cities have implemented PPKM level 3.

“We will review the capacity, response, spike in cases, and the hospitals’ readiness,” Hartarto noted.

Currently, 303 hospital beds outside Java have been used or the Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) is only 1.09 percent, while isolation is still available for 27,766 patients.

“President Joko Widodo had directed that patients with mild symptoms and asymptomatic patients would be placed at a centralized isolation or in their respective homes,” he noted.

The highest BOR for hospitals outside Java is experienced by Southeast Sulawesi, at 15 percent; South Sumatra, 11 percent; Lampung, 11 percent; South Kalimantan, 10 percent; Bengkulu, 10 percent; and the rest still below 10 percent.

Hartarto noted that based on observation of the spread of the Delta variant, the increase in COVID-19 cases outside Java usually occurred three to four weeks after the surge in cases in Java. Overall, active cases outside Java had totaled 13,424, or seven percent of the cases in Java.

Source: Antara News