VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 18 - The Indonesian government has said it will continue to accelerate efforts to achieve herd immunity in order to bring down the rate of COVID-19 transmission in the country.

"For example, by increasing the number of locations for COVID-19 vaccination en masse," said Health Ministry's spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, during a discussion on the Alinea Forum entitled ‘Roadmap to Herd Immunity’, here on Wednesday.

To achieve herd immunity, the government has taken several steps, including cooperating with the private sector and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to carry out mass vaccinations, she pointed out.

The Health Ministry realizes that efforts to speed up vaccinations depend not only on the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, but also on the number of vaccinators, she said.

Therefore, the government is continuing to increase the number of vaccinators and collaborate with private clinical associations as well as health service facilities managed by ministries and agencies, she added.

Furthermore, the government is expecting to increase the number of vaccine recipients to more than 500 thousand people per day, she said.

Meanwhile, director of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, Amin Soebandrio, has said that herd immunity can be influenced by several factors, such as the number of people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine and the efficacy of the vaccine itself. (Antaranews)