Minister Of Health: Transition From Pandemic To Endemic Must Meet Three Conditions

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin/DOK Ministry of Health

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said his party proposed that three conditions must be met first to determine the transition from the COVID-19 pandemic to endemic, one of which was community transmission at level 1 for three consecutive months.

"Our proposal is from a health perspective, if it is possible for community transmission, according to WHO rules, namely how many cases per 100.000, how many are admitted to the hospital per 100.000 and who die per 100.000, it must be level 1 for three consecutive months," said the Minister of Health in a press statement after attending a limited meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo at the President's office, reported by Antara, Tuesday, May 31.

The second condition is the success rate of a complete COVID-19 vaccination or two full doses of reaching 70 percent of the population.

"And the third requirement is that the reproduction rate or transmission rate is 1 or below 1 for three consecutive months," said the Minister of Health.

Nevertheless, the Minister of Health reminded that due to the global status of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision to change its status to endemic cannot be taken by one country alone.

"There must be an agreement between the leaders of the big countries in the world," he said.

The Minister of Health said that in terms of COVID-19 vaccination, Indonesia has so far injected approximately 412 million doses of vaccine.

Of this amount, the first dose of vaccine injection has already crossed the 200 million mark up to two weeks ago.

"And for the second dose, we have reached 65 percent of the target for the entire population, that was also last week's figure," said the Minister of Health.

Meanwhile, the booster dose of vaccine has only reached 25 percent of the population.

Therefore, the Minister of Health conveyed that the President had directed to increase the coverage of booster doses of vaccination, in addition to increasing the public's antibodies, as well as to accelerate the utilization of vaccine stocks that were approaching the expiration date.