Ministry Of Health Confirms Janssen Vaccine Recipients Can Be Injected With Boosters

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for vaccination from the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, confirmed that primary vaccine recipients using Janssen (J&J) were able to receive the third or booster dose of vaccine.

This is in response to the statement by the Civil Society Coalition for Access to Vaccination for Indigenous Peoples and Vulnerable Groups that recipients of the Janssen vaccine are not treated the same as other vaccine recipients.

Because people who receive the Janssen vaccine only get one shot for the complete dose. The complaint is that they are still considered to have just received the first dose of vaccination. It is feared that they will not be able to get the booster vaccine which is currently used as a condition for going home.

"For people who have received the COVID-19 vaccination with the Janssen (J&J) vaccine, it has been counted as having received a complete vaccination. After that, it can be continued with a booster vaccination 3 months later," said Nadia in her statement, Friday, April 8.

Meanwhile, the Chief of Digital Transformation Office of the Ministry of Health, Setiaji emphasized that the mechanism for collecting vaccination data through Pcare so far has no problem if Janssen vaccine recipients will carry out booster vaccinations.

"To travel using public transportation, Janssen vaccine recipients are considered the same as travelers who have received two doses of vaccination with other types of COVID-19 vaccines. If they have not received a booster, they must be accompanied by a negative antigen test document 1X24 hours or a negative PCR test within 3X24 hours last, said Setiaji.

According to him, Indonesian citizens who do not have a cellphone, or do not even have a population identification number (NIK), the mechanism for receiving booster vaccines can still be assisted by officers manually, by showing a printed vaccine card.

"The Janssen vaccine itself has been registered in the system as doses 1 and 2 in all districts/cities and officers can check on the KPCPEN dashboard," he said.

For information, the Janssen type of COVID-19 vaccine is one of the vaccines that received an emergency use permit by BPOM. For now, the Janssen vaccine is only given to the age group 18 years and over.

This Janssen vaccine is also the first COVID-19 vaccine with a single dose, which means that even if you get one dose, you are considered to have received the complete vaccine. So that in the Circular of the Director General of P2P No. SR.02.06/II/1188/2022 regarding the addition of a booster vaccination regimen, Janssen vaccine recipients can get a Moderna type booster vaccination.