Epidemiologist: Accelerate Vaccination To Anticipate Spike In COVID-19 Cases

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JAKARTA - Field epidemiologist from Jenderal Sudirman University (Unsoed) dr. Yudhi Wibowo said that the acceleration of the vaccination program was needed to anticipate the surge in COVID-19 cases as people's mobility increased. "Especially at the Christmas and New Year's holidays at the end of this year, it is feared that community mobility will increase," he said in Purwokerto, Thursday. During the Christmas and New Year's national holidays, he said, it needed to be accompanied by an acceleration of vaccination to anticipate a spike in COVID-19 cases. vaccinations in the country will continue to increase significantly until the end of the year in accordance with the target to achieve group immunity. In addition to increasing vaccination coverage, he said, 3T practices, namely examination (testing), tracing (tracing) and treatment (treatment) also need to be continued. intensified."3T practices should be intensified while continuing to run the COVID-19 vaccination program according to the target group," he said. In addition, he said, the implementation of the 3T program also still needs to be supported by the application of 3M, namely by wearing masks, maintaining distance and also washing hands. "Citizens also need to be constantly reminded to remain disciplined in implementing health protocols to prevent COVID-19 because the pandemic is not over yet," he said.

He said health protocols should be part of people's habits and lifestyles. "Currently, nationally, daily cases and deaths continue to decline. However, we must not be careless because there is still a possibility that the virus is still around us," he said. in Indonesia, which has a tendency to increase in the number of positive cases in the past week. "Based on monitoring as of October 31, 2021, there are nine provinces that have experienced an increase in the average number of positive cases of COVID-19 in the last seven days compared to the previous seven days," he said. The nine provinces are Lampung, West Java, East Java, Banten, Bali, North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, North Maluku and Papua.