Teenagers Get 'Gifts' From President Jokowi, Can Go Home Without The COVID-19 Vaccine Booster

ILLUSTRATION/TRANSJAVA TOLL/DOK VIA BETWEEN

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) gives 'gifts' to children and adolescents under 18 years old ahead of this year's Eid. They can now go home with their families without the need to do an antigen-based swab test or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) even though the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine or booster has not been injected.

This news was conveyed by Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin after holding a limited meeting with President Jokowi and other ministries and institutions today, Monday, April 18.

"In the end, it was decided that children, teenagers, if they want to go home without a booster, it's okay. There is no need for an antigen test. So that they can accompany their parents to go home without a PCR test or an antigen from having been vaccinated twice," said Budi in a press conference broadcast on YouTube. Presidential Secretariat, Monday, April 18th.

"So this is a gift from him (President Jokowi, ed) to our children whose families want to go home," added the former Deputy Minister of BUMN.

The Minister of Health also briefly explained that the vaccination doses that have been given to the public have reached 392 million. While the current recipients have managed to reach 198 million people.

He called this figure an extraordinary achievement. This is because the first and second doses of vaccination have only been running for about 15 months.

"Alhamdulillah, until now there have been 392 million doses of vaccine given to 198 million people in Indonesia. (This figure, ed) has reached almost 200 million for 15 months, this is an extraordinary achievement," he said.

For this achievement, the central government then thanked a number of parties who helped provide vaccines to the community. One of them is to regional heads, regents, mayors, to the TNI, Polri, and BIN.

"That has helped (giving, red) this vaccination so that almost 200 million Indonesians have access to vaccinations," said the Minister of Health.