Gov’t Poised to Speed Up COVID-19 Booster Drive

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin. (Photo by: PR/Rahmat)

In a bid to protect the people from COVID-19, the Government has announced it will continue to speed up vaccination drive for COVID-19 booster jabs.

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin Tuesday (05/31) said that Sero surveys, which is conducted to check for the presence of antibodies among the population, highlighted that those who have been fully vaccinated have 300-400 antibody titers, whereas those who have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine and a booster jab have 6,000 antibody titers.

To that end, the Government, he said, will speed up vaccination drive and ensure sufficient stock of booster vaccine in the regions.

For the record, as of April 2022 Indonesia has secured 474 million doses of vaccine, in which 413.36 million doses have been used for vaccination program until May 2022.

The remaining dose were stored in medical freezers, with some of those having expired.

Budi also underscored that the Ministry will destroy the expired vaccines based on prevailing procedures and regulations so that the freezer can be used to store new batches of vaccine, adding that by the end of 2022 Indonesia will also receive 74 million doses of vaccine, mostly obtained from grants. (FID/MAY/UN) (RAS/EP)