VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

At least 45.93 million Indonesian citizens have received the third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Wednesday, the COVID-19 Handling Task Force has reported.

According to data received here from the task force, the number of booster dose recipients in Indonesia grew by 261,972 on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 45,934,944.

Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two doses, swelled by 86,435 to reach 167,507,245.

Then, the number of people who have obtained the first dose rose by 60,417, taking their total number to 200,327,825.

As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021.

The government is targeting to vaccinate as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.

So far, 96.19 percent of the targeted recipients have received the first vaccine dose, 80.43 percent have received the second dose, and 22.06 percent have received the third dose.

Earlier, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had said that President Joko Widodo had called for the intensification of booster vaccinations in order to increase coverage.

The Health Ministry's sero-survey in March 2022 had shown that the booster dose is effective in bolstering the body's immunity against COVID-19, Sadikin informed.

In addition, the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination services needs to be intensified so that vaccines can be distributed without delay and their stocks do not pile up in storage locations and expire before use, he added.

The first case of COVID-19 in Indonesia was confirmed in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of June 1, 2022, the nation has recorded a total of 6,055,341 COVID-19 cases, 5,895,606 recoveries, and 156,594 deaths. (Antaranews)