JAKARTA - The government is considering giving the fourth dose of vaccine after the number of COVID-19 cases began to show symptoms will increase.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Mohammad Syahril, said that the government is starting to consider administering the fourth dose of vaccine. Moreover, many countries have also done the same thing.
"Several countries have started the second four (booster) dose. The plan has already been considered in Indonesia, because of the long-term pandemic," said Mohammad Syahril, who was confirmed via telephone in Jakarta, Friday, July 22.
Syahril said a number of epidemiologists estimated that the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the world would last for quite a long time.
Meanwhile, health science experts have concluded that the primary complete dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as well as the booster dose as an immune enhancer can decrease within six months.
"The active period or antibody vaccine response after six months decreased," he said.
In the event of a prolonged pandemic, said Syahril, there may be recommendations from various parties for the implementation of a second booster vaccination program.
The Ministry of Health together with the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) are currently conducting intensive discussions regarding the fourth dose vaccination program for the general public in Indonesia.
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"Especially the priority for high-risk groups, health workers, the elderly, public service personnel, all of which have priorities," he said.
Another thing that is being discussed is the government's ability to provide vaccine stock for the fourth dose.
"There are several countries, such as Indonesia, where the third vaccination has not been fulfilled," he said.
Reporting from the Vaccination Dashboard of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, booster vaccinations in Indonesia have only reached more than 53.89 million people or 25.88 percent of the target target of more than 208 million people.
"So, at this time we are still focused on achieving complete primary and booster doses of vaccination (third dose)," he said.
The push for the government to immediately roll out a four-dose vaccination was carried out by an Epidemiologist from Griffith University Australia, Dicky Budiman.
The reason, the four-dose vaccine is important for some vulnerable groups, given the corona virus continues to mutate rapidly. "Even though the effectiveness of the vaccine has decreased, the vaccine is still needed to prevent the severity of falling ill due to COVID-19," he said.
According to Dicky, the booster vaccine is said to be able to reduce the death rate or prevent patients from being treated in the hospital ICU. "When this corona virus is experienced by people who have not been vaccinated with boosters it can be fatal, even death. So, this vaccine does have a weakness that it cannot prevent infection 100 percent," he said.
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