Why Is The PCR Test A Mandatory Travel Requirement? IDI Task Force: Vaccines Are Not 100 Percent Effective

ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The head of the Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI) COVID-19 Task Force, Prof. Zubairi Djoerban, stated that the provision for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for travellers is due to the fact that COVID-19 vaccination protection is not yet 100 percent effective.

"Vaccination is safe and effective, we say that's how the evidence is. The data evidence is also very very accurate, but actually it is not 100 percent effective," said Zubairi Djoerban, quoted by Antara, Friday, October 29.

Zubairi said the COVID-19 vaccine is not 100 percent safe and there are few side effects in certain people. The average vaccination efficacy is still around 65 percent to 95 percent. "So it's not 100 percent effective yet," he said.

Zubairi said this fact was proven by reports of 207 doctors who had been vaccinated died from SARS-CoV-2 infection in July 2021.

"Then more valid data from America is more accurate, very detailed, they have vaccinated more than 180 million people, it turns out that there are still more than 30,000 who have to be hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection. More than 10,000 have died," he said.

The government's decision to require PCR tests for domestic and foreign travelers is due to the threat of COVID-19.

"Because we don't want to go back to July-August 2021 which was very heartbreaking, many times my friends died and many families were hospitalized, some were helped, some died," he said.