Many Seniors Are At Home, Vaccinations In Aceh Still Use The Pick-up Ball System

ILLUSTRATION - Health workers inject the COVID-19 vaccine in the elderly from house to house in Benda, Tangerang City, Banten, Tuesday (25/5/2021). (BETWEEN PHOTOS/Fauzan/rwa)

ACEH - The Aceh Health Service (Dinkes) has picked up the ball or went directly to villages in an effort to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination for the elderly (elderly) in the area.

“We still use the ball pick-up system, because many of the elderly are at home. So, access to Poswindu is guided by officers at the Puskesmas," said Iman Cheapman, Head of Disease Prevention and Control at the Aceh Health Office in Banda Aceh, as reported by Antara, Monday, February 21.

Iman explained that the vaccination for the elderly in Aceh had reached 80.8 percent for the first dose and 36.4 percent for the second dose.

On the island of Sumatra, he continued, elderly vaccination in Aceh was in the third position for the coverage for the first dose, while for the second dose, Aceh was in the lowest position in Sumatra.

Data from the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN) noted that the vaccination target for the elderly in Aceh was 339,125 people. The elderly who had received the first dose were 273,859 people and the second dose was 123,421 people and the third dose was 1,618 people.

"For the elderly, the third dose is already available, but the amount is not significant," said Iman.

Therefore, according to him, all regencies/cities in the westernmost province of Indonesia are still implementing a pick-up and drop-off system to facilitate the process of injecting vaccines for the elderly.

"Many came for dose one, now the second dose we are pursuing for the elderly," he said.

Iman said that the elderly group was most at risk of contracting COVID-19. Moreover, Indonesia is facing a surge in cases of the Omicron variant.

"If the death rate in Aceh is also a lot of elderly and comorbid, so the average is infected with COVID-19 and comorbidities, not just COVID-19," he said.