VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Covid-19 vaccine sample - 

The government will need to administer 750 thousand COVID-19 vaccine doses per day to meet the target of 70-percent vaccination coverage by April, the month of Ramadan, a Health Ministry spokesperson has said.

"We have calculated the scenario, in April 2022 we can achieve our vaccination target," Siti Nadia Tarmizi informed on Friday.

Since the COVID-19 vaccination program began in Indonesia on January 13, 2021, the government has intensified vaccinations and has been administering an average of 1 million to 2 million shots per day, depending on the availability of vaccines stock in the country, she noted.

Until now, more than 365 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country, she said. A total of 192 million (92.68 percent) people have been provided the first dose, 150 million (72.16 percent) have been fully vaccinated, and more than 14 million (6.73 percent) have received the booster vaccine, she disclosed.

"If we want to achieve the 70-percent target by the end of April 2022, then the rate of injection of the second dose must be increased to 750 thousand per day," she added.

If less than 750 thousand second doses are provided per day, then 70-percent second dose coverage would likely be achieved by May at the latest, she projected.

Tarmizi said the vaccine does not fully protect against COVID-19 transmission. Strict health protocols need to be followed, too, she added.

"The risk of infection is equal to the number of viruses divided by immunity. So, if the immunity is high, the risk of infection is low," she explained.

The pandemic-endemic transition policy needs to be implemented in stages with a road map to prepare for the normalization of community activities through COVID-19 control policies and a target to keep hospitalization and death rates at a low level, she said.

"The initial steps include increasing the coverage of the second and also booster vaccination doses, increasing surveillance capacity of active cases, pursuing testing and tracing, and providing qualified health response facilities," she added//ANT