West Java Police Chief calls for accelerating vaccinations

West Java Regional Police Chief Inspector General Suntana has asked the COVID-19 Handling Task Force to accelerate the pace of administering COVID-19 vaccinations in the province, since West Java has become the province with the highest daily cases in Indonesia.

“The pace of vaccinations for children and the elderly is already fast, we only need to accelerate it. West Java is still ranked first (as the province with the highest daily cases), still 14 thousand (cases per day). We need help from various parties,” he said while monitoring vaccinations at Darmawan Park, Sentul, here on Friday.

He added that vaccinations will continue, even during Ramadhan if the vaccination target has not been reached yet.

Suntana said he hoped that Bogor District would be able to reach 100 percent vaccination coverage, as have several other regions in West Java.

Bogor District Head Ade Yasin said that the COVID-19 vaccination coverage in Bogor District had reached 74.02 percent or 6,242,855 vaccine recipients.

She said she hoped that the Ministry of Health would not require people to wait six months after the second dose vaccination before receiving the third dose or booster shot.

“Acceleration is hampered because people have to wait for six months. We encourage it to be at least three months after receiving the second dose, so that the booster dose can be given,” she said.

The Bogor district head noted that the time period of six months is too long. Meanwhile, COVID-19 transmission in Bogor District is still high, as the district records more than 1,000 new cases daily.

The Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, as part of the efforts to boost immunity against COVID-19. President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program.

According to data provided by the Health Ministry, as of February 25, 2022, nearly 190,596,053 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 jab, 143,527,913 have been fully vaccinated, and 9,677,149 have received the booster shot.

 

Source: Antara News