Minister Of Religion Invites People To Succeed Booster Vaccination

Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas. (ANTARA/HO-Kemenag)

JAKARTA - Minister of Religion Yaqut Cholil Qoumas invites religious communities to succeed in booster vaccinations as an effort to maximize prevention and protect themselves from COVID-19.

"On behalf of the Ministry of Religion, I invite religious leaders, leaders of religious organizations, religious institutions, as well as all elements of the nation and the people to jointly make vaccinations successful by proactively visiting vaccination centers," said the Minister of Religion in a written statement quoted by Antara, Wednesday, April 13.

According to the Minister of Religion, the government has targeted a vaccination program of two million people a day by 2022. The Ministry of Religion responded to this by organizing mass vaccinations at all levels, including by holding booster vaccinations.

The Ministry of Religion today held a simultaneous vaccination movement in 11 provinces. Apart from East Java, vaccinations were also carried out by the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Religion in Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi, West Java, Banten, DKI Jakarta, Lampung, North Sumatra, South Kalimantan and Bali.

"This is a real step for all elements of the nation in the maximum prevention effort against the COVID-19 outbreak. We thank the Ministry of Health for being a partner in implementing this booster vaccination," he said.

The government has taken a policy to allow the 2022 Eid homecoming for the community. Data from the Ministry of Transportation reports that around 85.5 million people will return to their respective villages. This number is so large and must be anticipated so that a wave of COVID-19 transmission does not occur in the homecoming destination areas and vice versa.

On the one hand, the government stipulates requirements in the form of an obligation to have booster vaccines for travelers, or have complete 2 doses of vaccine and an antigen test, or have a single dose of vaccine and show a PCR test.

The government's policy regarding the requirements for travelers, he said, was a proof of the government's love for maintaining the safety of the entire community and its commitment to the Indonesian nation to recover quickly from the pandemic that has plagued the nation for the past two years.

"So don't compare the phenomenon of going home, which involves tens of millions of people, with, for example, the MotoGP event at the Mandalika circuit, which has an accumulated audience of 100,000, aka only 0.1 percent of the number of travelers. Even then, in NTB, the complete dose of vaccine has reached 80.55 percent ahead of MotoGP," he said.

The Minister of Religion advised his staff to continue the success of the vaccination program. The Minister of Religion also requested that every program and activity at the Ministry of Religion continue to run by implementing health protocols.

"We must be an example for the community in dealing with this pandemic. No one should ignore health protocols, let alone participate in spreading hoaxes," he said.