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Govt focuses on increasing booster coverage
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A woman receives a Pfizer COVID-19 booster vaccine in Jakarta on March 29. (AFP/Adek Berry)
T
he government is rolling out rules that make it harder for those who do not have COVID-19 booster doses to enter public spaces and to travel amid a Jakarta-centered infection uptick thought to be tied to subvariants of the Omicron strain of the coronavirus.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said at a press conference on Monday that while the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were two to three times more likely than previous variants to infect a vaccinated person, vaccines still helped prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
“That’s why we are encouraging the public to get their booster shots as soon as possible. While there is still the possibility of being infected, a booster [vaccine] is proven to protect against hospitalization, and even if [a patient] is hospitalized, the fatality rate remains low,” Budi said.
As of Monday, some 97 percent of the country’s 208 million target population had received a first jab of the vaccine, with a 81 percent of the targeted population having received a second jab.
Only 25 percent, however, have received booster shots.
Read also: COVID-19 cases spike as fourth wave takes hold
The government has recently instructed mayors and regents to make a third vaccine dose mandatory for people who wish to enter public spaces such as shopping malls, restaurants, office buildings and tourist destinations in their jurisdictions, as well as to require visitors to such places to check in with contact-tracing app PeduliLindungi. But it remains unclear when and to what extent the policies will be enforced locally.
