Di Tengah 'Ancaman' COVID Varian XBB, DIY Kembali Sibuk Melakukan Vaccination Booster

Illustration-(Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Yogyakarta Special Region Government (DIY) will immediately intensify booster vaccinations or boosters to prevent the spread of COVID-19 under the Omicron XBB sub-variant. "To prevent the XBB variant, we will encourage booster vaccinations," said the Head of the Task Force for the Acceleration of Vaccination for DIY Sumadi when contacted in Yogyakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, November 4. According to him, the booster vaccination will later be prioritized for districts whose achievements are still low. "We prioritize districts whose achievements are still not optimal," he said. Regarding the stock of vaccines available in DIY, he explained that he would check because based on information on the additional supply of vaccines from the central government, they had been sent to this province. "It looks like it has been sent from the center. I'll check later," said Sumadi, who is also the Acting (Pj) Mayor of Yogyakarta. Not only vaccination, according to him, the implementation of health protocols (prokes) among the community is also encouraged to be more orderly again. Head of the Health Resources Division of the DIY Health Office, Agus Priyanta, said that booster vaccination in DIY until Thursday (3/11) had only reached 43.78 percent of the total target or reached 1,260,790 people. According to Agus, the most booster vaccination achievements were recorded in Yogyakarta City reaching 103.91 percent, followed by Sleman Regency 47.5 percent, Gunung Kidul 37.36 percent, Kulon Progo 29.63 percent, and finally Bantul Regency 28.11 percent. "Especially for the second dose of vaccination for the elderly as a whole, it reaches 78.12 percent," he said. Previously, the Head of the Genetic Working Group of the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing (FKKMK) Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) dr. Gunadi predicts that the COVID-19 subvariant Omicron XBB has entered the Special Region of Yogyakarta since October 2022. This prediction is based on the increasing trend of daily COVID-19 cases in DIY in recent times. Based on data from the DIY Regional Government, daily COVID-19 cases have increased since mid-October 2022 by touching 50 cases per day until their peak on November 2, 2022, which reached 139 cases a day. In fact, in the previous months, especially August and September 2022, the average new cases were still in the range of 20-30 cases per day. "The XBB prediction has entered Yogyakarta in October, because the number of cases has increased (compared) for the August-September period," said Gunadi.