JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) said that the COVID-19 vaccine circulating in the world, including in Indonesia, is still effective in warding off new variants and subvariants of COVID-19.
"We follow WHO standards which state that even the vaccines currently circulating in Indonesia, even in the world, still get WHO recommendations and are still effective for new subvariants," said Ministry of Health spokesman dr. Mohammad Syahril at a press conference that was attended online in Jakarta, Antara, Wednesday, October 26.
The COVID-19 vaccine is part of the government's efforts to provide antibodies to the community or to someone. "If we catch a COVID-19 infection then it's not too heavy," he said.
Currently, he continued, the government continues to pursue or achieve the target of the third vaccination booster. Syahril explained that more than 441 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been injected into the Indonesian people.
"As much as 73.2 percent have received the second injection. However, we still have to encourage the number of vaccination achievements," he said.
Meanwhile, for the third dose of vaccination, he continued, it had only reached 64.8 million people or 27.6 percent of the target for COVID-19 vaccination, as many as 234,666,020 people.
"This achievement is still relatively low, it's not going up so fast, and this is indeed a homework for all of us because vaccination is part of our strategy to end this pandemic," he said.
Regarding the fulfillment of vaccine needs, Syahril said that the government had made efforts through grants and procurement schemes.
"The Pfizer grant vaccine has arrived in Indonesia with 5 million doses, of which testing is currently being carried out at the POM. God willing, this weekend it can be distributed throughout the province," he said.
In addition to the grant vaccine, he continued, Indonesia still has 555,000 doses of the previous vaccine.
Meanwhile, in the procurement of vaccines, Syahril said the government was fulfilling it through a domestically produced vaccine, namely IndoVac from Bio Farma.
"It is in the process, and it is hoped that in November it will be available. With the permission and circulation of the IndoVac vaccine, it can meet the needs of vaccines in Indonesia," he added.
He said the local vaccine would be distributed based on the needs in the regions.
"We urge local governments, especially provincial, district/city health offices to immediately make various efforts to accelerate the implementation of boosters so that we can achieve the target of at least 50 percent of people being vaccinated against boosters," he said.
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