Indonesia Starts Booster Vaccination on 12 January
Jakarta, MINA – Indonesia has decided to start the third dose of Covid-19 vaccination (booster) on January 12, 2022.
Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the vaccine will be given to people aged 18 years and over who have received the second dose of vaccine with a period of more than six months.
“This booster vaccination will also be given for a period of more than six months after the second dose. We identified around 21 million targets in January who have entered this category,” said the Minister of Health in a statement at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, on Monday, Anadolu Agency reported.
Budi said that booster vaccinations will be given to districts/cities whose vaccination achievements have met the criteria for 70 percent of the first dose and 60 percent of the second dose.
“So until now there are 244 city districts that have met these criteria,” said Budi
Budi said the government has secured a stock of around 113 million doses of booster vaccines out of a total requirement of 230 million doses.
Regarding the type of vaccine to be used, a decision will be made after the recommendation from the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
“We will determine the type of booster later, some are homologous or the same type, some are heterologous with different vaccine types. Hopefully, it will be decided on the 10th, recommendations from ITAGI and BPOM have been issued,” he said.
On this occasion, Budi reminded again to continue to accelerate vaccination and to deplete the available stock of the first and second doses of vaccine, especially for provinces that have not yet achieved their vaccination target.
“Yesterday, at the end of the new year, what we still need to pursue are West Kalimantan, West Sumatra, Aceh, West Sulawesi, Maluku, West Papua and Papua. Those are the provinces that have not yet reached 70 percent of the first dose,” Budi said. (T/RE1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
