Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccination, Local Government Recommended Classification Of Groups With The Lowest Booster Coverage

Illustration of booster dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the elderly (elderly). (Antaranews)

JAKARTA - Epidemiologist Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono assesses that local governments can classify groups in their area that have low coverage of the third or booster dose of vaccination.

These efforts can provide the main focus for accelerating COVID-19 vaccination in the area.

"In the provinces, the governors and regents must look carefully at which coverage is low, in which sector, in which group," said Miko when contacted, Monday, July 18.

The head of the Department of Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, University of Indonesia (UI), said local governments have data on vaccination achievements in their respective regions.

In the data, he said, it can be seen which groups have low achievements and then take steps to encourage an increase in the number of people who get boosters.

With the data owned by local governments, they can then plan steps to reach these groups.

"Then think about how to reach difficult groups," said Miko.

According to data on the website of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) as of July 18, 2022 until 12.00 WIB, there are 53,126,957 people who have undergone the third vaccination in Indonesia.

This number shows the achievement of 25.51 percent of the 208,265,720 people targeted by the government to undergo COVID-19 vaccination.

Based on Antara's report, this number is still below the achievement of the first vaccination of 201,966,816 people and the second vaccination of 169,582,051 people.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that in a limited meeting today President Joko Widodo ordered his staff to increase the coverage of booster vaccinations to the public.

In a statement after a limited meeting on the evaluation of PPKM at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Monday, Minister of Health Budi said that some people who are required to carry out community activities will be required to have a booster vaccination. This step was taken to protect the public if infected, they would not go to the hospital and result in death.