Shocking Facts From Luhut: There Are 13.6 Million People In Java-Bali Apparently Not Vaccinated

Luhut Panjaitan (Photo via Antara)

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said there were still 13.6 million people in Java and Bali who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19. so that the government continues to encourage the acceleration of vaccination, especially in areas with low levels of first dose vaccination.

"There are still 13.6 million people in Java-Bali or 9 percent who have not been protected. This number is not small. This requires the government to continue to encourage the acceleration of vaccination, especially in districts/cities where the other dose is still below 50 percent", said Coordinating Minister Luhut in a press statement related to the PPKM (Community Activity Restrictions) evaluation that was broadcast online in Jakarta, Monday, January 10.

The Coordinating Minister, Luhut, who is also the Coordinator of the Java-Bali PPKM, explained that the achievement of vaccination in the Java-Bali region continues to increase. Likewise, the achievement of childhood vaccinations has reached 36 percent.

However, the government is still not satisfied and will continue to encourage the achievement of child vaccination to continue to increase.

Coordinating Minister Luhut emphasized that areas with a general single-dose vaccination achievement and the elderly who are still below 50 percent will be priority areas for surveillance and acceleration of vaccination.

Several areas referred to by Coordinating Minister Luhut include Pamekasan, Sumenep, and Bangkalan, in East Java.

"The good news is that currently there are only two regencies/cities in Java-Bali with the condition (vaccination) of a dose of one being below 50 percent", he said.

Coordinating Minister Luhut who is also the Deputy Chair of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) emphasized that the Indonesian health system is quite ready to face the Omicron variant.

However, he emphasized that preventive measures are the main key to avoiding the wave of Omicron variants.

"We must be united. There is no need to look for shortcomings here and there, but we must remind each other well", said Coordinating Minister Luhut.

Prevention of Omicron, he continued, cannot be done by the government itself, but also needs to involve the participation of the community, starting from the enforcement of health protocols to the proper use of PeduliLindung.

The government also asked all regions to prepare hospital facilities and centralized isolation as early as possible to mitigate unwanted things.

In addition, increasing testing tracing also continues to be a priority for the government to prevent cases from spiking again.