VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Delta variant continues to dominate the number of COVID-19 cases in several Indonesian regions in addition to the potential threat of Omicron, the Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Vaccination spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated.

To this end, health service facilities should be readied to handle this threat, she noted at a virtual discussion here on Saturday.

"We remind once again that in addition to the Omicron variant that became our current issue, we have started to become wary of the increase in local transmission," she noted.

"However, we observe that the Delta variant still dominates the number of cases in several regions in Indonesia," she pointed out.

This means that the readiness of health service facilities also become important on account of the fact that the Delta variant is still the dominating variant in several regions in Indonesia, she remarked.

In addition, vaccination is still capable of providing substantial protection from COVID-19, including the Omicron variant, she noted.

"While there is a decline in efficacy from the currently existing vaccine, we then observed that the T cell system could still provide protection," she noted.

To this end, Tarmizi explained that one of the speculations surrounding how swiftly Omicron could infect albeit only showing mild to no symptoms is due to the protection acquired from vaccination.

As of January 22, 2022, at 12 p.m. local time, COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia had reached 123,782,386 for people that had received the second dose of vaccination, or 59.43 percent of the targeted 208,265,720 people that the government had determined, according to data on the ministry's website.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government began administering the third dose of vaccination or booster shot from January 12, 2022, with the elderly and vulnerable groups being prioritized. (Antaranews)