Minister Of Health: If We Discipline The COVID-19 Vaccine, Hopefully The Conditions In The Fasting Month Will Be Better

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin/DOK VIA ANTARA

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that activities during the month of Ramadan could be normal. Provided that the coverage of two-dose vaccination and giving a third or booster dose for susceptible groups has been achieved.

"Hopefully, if we can discipline the second dose of vaccination for the community and also the elderly, hopefully later our condition in the month of fasting will be better and this is one of the conditions so that we can review what we will decide later during Ramadan. and Eid this year," said Budi in a press conference that was broadcast online, Monday, March 14.

In addition to welcoming the fasting month, the scope of this COVID-19 vaccine must be accelerated following the presence of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant. Moreover, this new type of variant makes the transmission rate and mortality rate at the vulnerable age in three countries such as the UK, Hong Kong and South Korea increase.

"This is a very valuable lesson for us," said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

"How we can reduce hospital admissions and deaths is to ensure acceleration of vaccination, especially for the elderly like our mothers and fathers, our grandparents who are over 60 years old because they are a population that is very vulnerable to hospital admissions," he said. " added Budi.

Budi asked the community to convince the elderly group to get two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and even a third dose. In addition, the public is also asked not to be picky about vaccines so that the vaccination target is immediately achieved.

"We really need to hasten the vaccination at least complete or at least two doses, ideally three doses to our elderly to protect them," he said.

Finally, Minister of Health Budi mentioned that Indonesia is currently experiencing a decline in the rate of COVID-19 cases. However, he asked the public to continue to obey the health protocols.

Moreover, currently, there are two provinces that have only experienced a decrease in the number of active cases but have not experienced a decline. The two provinces, continued Budi, are North Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara.

"The case in Indonesia, according to the production rate, has decreased. We observe that there are only two provinces that are relatively still not declining but are sloping, namely North Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara," he concluded.