Asking People Not To Choose Vaccines, Deputy Minister Of Health: The Best Vaccine Is The Fastest Vaccine We Can Get

ILLUSTRATION OF DOCK BETWEEN

JAKARTA - Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono appealed to the public not to delay vaccinating doses of one, two and booster because they chose the vaccine. According to him, all vaccines provided by the government are the best

"Public communication continues to be carried out so that people do not choose vaccines, and the best vaccine is the vaccine that we can get the fastest," said Dante during a press conference monitored via the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, Monday, March 7.

Dante also said the Ministry of Health had revised the booster vaccination policy. Initially, the booster vaccine was given 6 months after the second vaccination, but now it has been revised three months after the second vaccination.

"It is hoped that herd immunity will occur in the community," he said.

Regarding vaccination, the Ministry of Health said that more than 54 percent of the Indonesian population had received complete vaccinations.

The Ministry of Health also noted that the trend of COVID-19 cases nationally had decreased. "The reproductive number of the virus has decreased in every major island in Indonesia. However, there are 5 provinces where the trend is still slightly increasing, namely Aceh, NTT, Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo and North Kalimantan," said Dante.

Dante said the number of national treatments in hospitals was steadily declining. He said 60 percent of those being treated were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.

"So most of the cases being treated are cases that do not require clinical medical treatment," he said.

Then, continued Dante, 50 percent of deaths in hospitals were due to COVID-19 patients who had previous severe comorbidities. Half of those who died were mainly elderly and had not received complete vaccinations.

Dante added that the results of the death audit at the hospital showed that the cases of death were elderly people with comorbid diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure.

"So not all of the patients died from COVID-19, but there were also those who died from COVID-19," he explained.