At least 47.5 million Indonesians have received the third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Saturday, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.
According to data received from the task force by ANTARA here on Saturday, the number of third dose recipients swelled by 76,508 on Saturday, taking the total tally to 47,535,860.
Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine doses under the government’s national vaccination program, grew by 33,136 to reach 168,030,935.
The task force data also showed that the number of first dose recipients increased by 25,369 to touch 200,818,541 as of Saturday.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021. President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program.
The Indonesian government is targeting to inoculate as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.
Therefore, based on the task force data, 96.42 percent of the targeted recipients nationally have received the first vaccine dose, 80.68 percent have received the second dose, and 22.72 percent have received the third dose.
Earlier, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, Mohammad Syahril, informed that so far, booster vaccination coverage has reached 30 percent in only 5 out of 34 Indonesian provinces, namely Bali, Jakarta, Riau Islands, Yogyakarta, and West Java,
Therefore, people must get the booster shot as part of efforts to boost immunity against COVID-19, he said at a press conference accessed online here on Friday.
“Booster dose becomes the power to avoid COVID-19. It is expected to increase the body’s immunity or antibodies,” Syahril added.
Meanwhile, commenting on the recommendation made by epidemiologists on providing the fourth vaccine dose to the community, he said that the government is still discussing it.
Source: Antara News