Booster Vaccination In East Java Held In 5 Regions

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SURABAYA - The Provincial Government of East Java has started to carry out booster vaccinations. Of the 38 regencies/cities in East Java, only five regions have just started implementing the third stage of the vaccination.

"In principle, all regions in East Java will carry out booster vaccinations. But for those who have just started vaccination, five areas kick off today, tomorrow will be followed by areas of several other districts/cities of the East Java Health Office, Erwin Ashta Triyono, in Surabaya on Wednesday, January 12.

Erwin did not explain in detail the reasons why only five regions had implemented the booster vaccination. According to him, the government is ready to facilitate the need for vaccines for each district/city. "The provincial government will also immediately distribute it if it receives vaccine rations from the center. Technically, each district/city already has a map, like Surabaya already has targets that must be met, only this is special for the elderly", he said.

According to Erwin, the COVID-19 booster vaccination is intended for people aged 18 years and over, with priority on the elderly, as well as high-risk communities such as immunocompromised sufferers. "Then the recipient of this booster vaccine must also have received a complete dose of vaccination or two injections, also at least six months after the second dose is injected", he said.

According to Erwin, this is by the president's direction, namely, the patient is 18 years old and after the last 6 months the vaccine has been vaccinated, for the elderly, all the following districts/cities may do so.

Erwin said that for the temporary availability of vaccines, patients with complete primary vaccines, or the first and second doses of Sinovac vaccine, would be given a booster vaccine of half a dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca.

"As for the primary Astra Zeneca vaccine or the first and second doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine, half a dose of Moderna will be given", he said.

For information, this COVID-19 booster vaccination is by the considerations of domestic and foreign researchers and has been confirmed by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (POM) and the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI). All combinations have received approval from BPOM and also recommendations from ITAGI.

"The combination of booster vaccines is also by WHO recommendations, where giving booster vaccines can use similar or homologous vaccines or different or heterologous vaccines", he said.

Heterologous is defined as a booster vaccination that uses a different type of vaccine, with the first and second doses. While Homolog is a booster vaccination using the same type of vaccine as the first and second doses of vaccination.

This booster vaccination will be carried out at government-owned health service facilities such as Puskesmas, government hospitals, and hospitals owned by local governments, as well as other vaccination posts determined by each region.

"With the target number of 100 people including teachers, mosque administrators, mass organizations, the Inter-religious Harmony Forum (FKUB), and journalists", he said.