Holding True To Islamic Teachings, Police Chief Teddy Minahasa Ensures West Sumatra Residents Are Not Affected By Vaccine Hoaxes

SUMBAR - West Sumatra (Sumbar) Police Chief Inspector General Teddy Minahasa Putra said residents in the province were not affected by hoaxes related to the COVID-19 vaccination that were busy appearing on various social media. Vaccine realization has actually increased.

"The people of West Sumatra are religious and intelligent, I don't think they are easily influenced by hoaxes or untrue narratives," said Tedy at the Gebyar Vaccine location in Pariaman, Friday, November 12.

Moreover, he said, West Sumatra is dominated by the Minangkabau ethnic group which is synonymous with Islam. In his teachings, it is clear that he is very anti-slander so that fake news related to vaccination has no effect.

He even appreciated the people of West Sumatra because the level of awareness to be vaccinated began to increase. He predicts that if there are no obstacles, the realization of vaccination in the area could reach 98 percent by the end of this year.

However, the obstacles faced now are geographical conditions or the distribution of the population that is far away, databases that are difficult to detect and bad weather. This affects the distribution of the COVID vaccine. "But we have worked around it, we are going to the residents," he said.

He conveyed that to balance the high level of public awareness of being vaccinated, the police and other related parties provided shuttle facilities for vaccine participants.

Even if these obstacles persist, at least by the end of December 2021 the realization of vaccination in West Sumatra has reached more than 70 percent.

Based on data from the Ministry of Health's website, the realization of vaccination in West Sumatra has reached 44.48 percent or 1,961,004 people for the first dose of vaccine from 4,408,509 targets.

Pariaman Mayor Genius Umar said that so far the realization of vaccination in the area has reached 41 percent of the total target, which is still below the local provincial average. "But we are optimistic that we can catch up and surpass West Sumatra," he said.

He said the vaccination target for the Vaccine Gebyar which was held today at Gandoriah Beach, Pariaman City, could reach four thousand people.