VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government will apply a booster vaccination as a condition of travel and social activities. Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto conveyed this plan in his statement at the Presidential Office in Jakarta, Monday (4/7). He explained that the third dose would be required for various activities by involving a large number of people and also for various trips. He added, according to President Joko Widodo's direction, the airport is also prepared for the third dose of vaccination.

The Indonesian government, in this case the Ministry of Health, will also carry out a sero survey. Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the sero survey has been carried out since Monday (4/7). It is hoped that the results will be out next month. This sero survey is conducted to see the total population in Indonesia who already have antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Minister Budi Gunadi further explained, based on the sero survey conducted in March 2022, 99 percent of the population already has antibodies from 3,000 to 4,000 levels. These results show that the antibody is much higher than the sero survey conducted in December 2021. At that time, 88 percent of the antibody population was around 400 - 500.

Accelerating booster vaccinations and conducting the third sero survey are preventive measures to face the possibility of a spike in cases of new variants of Covid-19, namely BA.4 and BA.5. Minister Budi Gunadi estimated that the peak of cases in Indonesia would be reached in the second and third week of July 2022.

Prevention is much better. Moreover, recently there has been an increase in the number of exposed cases. Based on the Ministry of Health's records distributed by the COVID-19 Task Force, as of Monday (4/7), there were 1,434 new cases. The Indonesian people are asked to continue to pay attention to health protocols, one of which is the use of masks.

Not wearing a mask in open spaces is allowed indeed. There has been no change in policy regarding removing masks in open spaces. But, still wearing a mask for prevention is much better, isn’t it?

The discipline of improving health protocols must be carried out by all Indonesian people. To immediately reach zero positive cases of Covid-19 is certainly the hope of all Indonesian people. To achieve that, the government cannot go alone. All Indonesian people must participate in implementing it.

Continuing to wear masks, as a form of implementing one of the health protocols until the estimated time for peak cases in Indonesia has passed, is a good step. Implementing the current health protocols to achieve the best results for the Indonesian nation next is the best step.