National Police Chief Asks All Regions To Pursue 70 Percent Vaccination Target

National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo (Photo: Police Public Relations)

JAKARTA - The National Police Chief, General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, has asked all regions in Indonesia whose vaccination achievement is still below 70 percent, to immediately accelerate to achieve the target.

"Alhamdulillah, our second national average has reached 40 percent. Even though this is part of the average for several regions, of course, there are still some that are lacking. Thus, we hope that regions that are still below 70 percent, please really be encouraged", said Sigit in a written statement quoted by Antara, Thursday, December 23.

The National Police Chief appreciated several regions in Indonesia whose first vaccination achievement had reached 100 percent, such as DKI Jakarta, Riau Islands, Yogyakarta, and East Kalimantan.

Sigit realized that each region has different challenges and difficulties. However, said Sigit, this can be anticipated by modifying strategies that are tailored to each region.

According to him, the acceleration of vaccination to realize communal immunity as targeted by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is very important related to controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also an effort to anticipate the existence of a new variant of COVID-19, namely Omicron.

"So please those who haven't, colleagues can ask questions or then make modifications related to the strategy. Because I know, each region has different difficulties. This needs to be done because the Head of the National Disaster Management Agency said that eight (Omicron cases, ed) have been detected", said Sigit.

The National Police Chief emphasized that the acceleration of vaccination is also an effort to prevent a spike in COVID-19 cases after the 2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year holidays. Therefore, during the holiday period, Sigit conveyed that he had held a Candle Operation in which security posts and service posts were prepared.

"We created security posts and service posts to be able to carry out activities to support the vaccination strategy", he said.

Sigit said that his party had prepared a vaccine booth, and in the rest area they had prepared a security post. When the PeduliLindungi application detects that there are people who have not been vaccinated or have only been vaccinated once or have been confirmed positive, they will provide handling steps.

“Those who have not been vaccinated, we will vaccinate. Then, those who are confirmed positive, we place them in temporary isolation and then follow up whether we take them to a referral hospital or a prepared isolation place", said Sigit.

With this effort, the National Police Chief hopes that during the Christmas and New Year period, community activities can run, thereby increasing economic growth. On the other hand, enforcement of health protocols and controlling COVID-19 can run well.

"We still have to be vigilant and keep the pace of COVID-19 under control by strictly enforcing health protocols (health protocols, ed) and being strong in accelerating vaccination acceleration, and strengthening 3M and 3T measures", he said.