Minister Of Health: Sero COVID-19 Antibody Survey Phase 3 Held At The End Of June For Pandemic Policy Input

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin/screenshot

JAKARTA - Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said the Sero survey stage three to see the number of people in Indonesia who already have antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 will run from June to July 2022.

"We will conduct a third Sero survey at the end of June 2022, so that in the third week of July 2022, the results will be released regarding the condition of the antibodies in our society", said Budi Gunadi Sadikin, quoted by Antara, Wednesday, June 8.

Budi said the survey conducted with researchers from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia (FKUI) would serve as scientific evidence-based input to President Joko Widodo to take policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

"Hopefully in August 2022, the President can take policies related to Indonesian Independence", he said.

Confirmed separately, FKUI Epidemiologist Pandu Riono said the third Sero survey was carried out by selecting residents who already had antibodies due to the government's vaccination program as well as naturally acquired immunity due to COVID-19 infection.

"We do it all over Indonesia. We take blood samples for research", he said.

The second-largest survey in the world, after India, was conducted by collecting information and data from respondents which included estimates of the prevalence of COVID-19 with population levels according to age, gender to characteristics of the place of residence.

That way, we will determine the proportion of symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, as well as determine factors related to COVID-19 infection in Indonesia.

The results of the first Sero survey in November-December 2021 showed that 86.6 percent of the Indonesian population already had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. In the second phase of April 2022, community antibodies increased to 99.2 percent.

Pandu believes that the high antibody titer of the Indonesian people can reduce the risk of negative impacts arising from the transmission of COVID-19.