Makassar City Government Accelerates Vaccination To Prevent COVID-19 Variant Omicron

MAKASSAR - The Makassar City Government, South Sulawesi, continues to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination to prevent a spike in cases facing the third wave, especially the Omicron variant attack.

"This past week, cases exposed to COVID-19 have started to increase. Although the achievement of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination has reached 90 percent, the second dose is still 67 percent per day. Of course, this is our concern", said Deputy Mayor of Makassar, Fatmawati Rusdi, at Makassar City Hall quoted by Antara on Monday, February 7.

By seeing the number of cases starting to increase every day, said Fatma, accelerated steps must be taken so that group immunity is formed, considering that the Omicron virus is also a threat to spread.

"For that, we must complete all (second dose vaccination) to be able to fight the Omicron variant", the former member of the Indonesian House of Representatives emphasized.

His party asked regional apparatus organizations (OPD) to contribute, such as inviting community organizations, religious leaders, and other related parties to participate in accelerating vaccinations, including socializing and emphasizing the 5M health protocol.

Such as wearing masks, washing hands, maintaining distance, limiting mobility and interaction, and staying away from crowds.

"We must be role models for the community and this is part of our efforts to reduce the rate of exposure to COVID-19 and course part of our humanitarian duty", he stressed.

Fatma hopes that cooperation with all parties to suppress the rate of spread of new variants of COVID-19 will be a serious concern so that the pandemic can end soon, considering that the Coronavirus attack has almost entered its third year.

According to the daily media report data for COVID-19, the Ministry of Health, as of February 7, 2021, the number of cases in Indonesia was recorded at 26,121 thousand. The highest cases were still occupied by DKI Jakarta with 12,682 cases, followed by West Java with 5,047 cases, Banten with 3,194 cases, East Java with 1,339 cases, and Bali with 1,172 cases. For South Sulawesi, 81 cases were added.

Meanwhile, data from the South Sulawesi COVID-19 Task Force team, as of February 6, 2021, the number of active positive cases reached 655, with the addition of 109 new cases. Meanwhile, the recovery rate increased by 11 patients, from the total accumulated recovered patients as many as 107,901 patients and the death rate was nil.

From 31 January to 6 February 2021, Makassar City gave the highest contribution, with 74 new patients recorded, followed by Gowa Regency, 10 cases, and other districts/cities with under five cases.