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Elderly now eligible to get second COVID-19 booster dose
People in the above-60 age group are now eligible to get a second booster dose, but the government still has not budged in response to experts' calls to retighten social restrictions.
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People wait to get their COVID-19 vaccine or booster dose during a mass vaccination drive held on Jan. 25, 2022 at the Jakarta International Expo in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. (Antara/Galih Pradipta)
T
he government has expanded its rollout of the second COVID-19 booster dose to the elderly to bolster waning immunity, in an anticipatory measure against a potential nationwide wave of coronavirus infection in the coming months due to the highly contagious Omicron subvariant, XBB.
People aged 60 and older become eligible to get a fourth jab -- their second booster dose -- six months after receiving their first booster dose, the Health Ministry announced in a circular issued on Tuesday. The policy was effective immediately.
August marked the start of the second booster dose rollout exclusively for frontline health workers across the country, with some 730,000 health workers having gotten their fourth jab to date.
Health Ministry spokesman Mohammad Syahril said the new policy aimed to provide additional protection for the elderly, since vaccine-induced immunity was thought to wane after six months.
The elderly are most vulnerable to developing severe disease from the virus, and close to half of the country’s total 159,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded since the pandemic began were people aged 60 and above.
“We urge the elderly to complete their primary vaccination first,” Syahril said in a statement, referring to the first two jabs that provide complete vaccination. He also addeding that people should not postpone their vaccination or be picky about the vaccine brand.
Rising caseload
