VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A health worker vaccinates a resident against COVID-19 at a mall in Tangerang district, Banten province. (ANTARA/Azmi Samsul Maarif) - 

The COVID-19 Handling Task Force of Tangerang district, Banten province, is seeking to expand booster vaccination coverage to reach 700 thousand people or 30 percent of the targeted recipients before Eid al-Fitr.

"Our target is to reach at least 30 percent (coverage) of residents having received the booster dose before Eid," spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force of Tangerang district, Hendra Tarmizi, said here on Friday.

The Indonesian government's policy to set booster vaccination as one of the requirements for people to join the Eid homecoming exodus has encouraged people to get the booster dose, he noted.

The local government has scaled up COVID-19 vaccination services to accommodate people who want to get vaccinated before the exodus, he added.

"Aside from (providing vaccination services) at community health centers (puskesmas), sub-precinct police stations (polsek), and sub-district military command (koramil) posts, we are also providing (vaccination services) in malls," he said.

In Tangerang district, the first dose coverage has reached 2,251 thousand or 78.9 percent of the target population, the second dose has been administered to 1,859 thousand residents or 65.2 percent of the targeted recipients, and the third dose has been administered to 379,063 residents or 17 percent of the target group, he informed.

"The vaccine stock is around 12 thousand doses. It has started to decline now. Once it is below 5 thousand, we will ask (for additional vaccines) from the provincial government," he added.

Earlier, President Widodo had emphasized that people would be allowed to join the Eid al-Fitr exodus if they completed the primary vaccination and received the booster dose against COVID-19.

The President also directed that every exodus activity strictly adhere to COVID-19 health protocols.

As part of the efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government rolled out a nationwide vaccination program targeting 208,265,720 citizens on January 13, 2021.

According to the Health Ministry's data, as of April 8, 2022, nearly 197,343,681 Indonesians have received their first COVID-19 jab, 161,171,449 have been fully vaccinated, and 26,067,922 have received the booster shot//ANT