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Minister urges patience amid demand for third COVID-19 shots
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Healthcare workers take swab samples from COVID-19 patients at the emergency room of the Cengkareng Regional General Hospital in Jakarta on June 23. (Antara/Fauzan)
H
ealth Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has urged people seeking third vaccine doses to be patient as the government prioritizes frontline medical workers.
The nation’s 1.5 million health workers began receiving third vaccine doses last week following the deaths of hundreds of medical professionals over the past two months, many of whom had been fully vaccinated, and amid the surge of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. The third dose program uses the United States’ Moderna vaccine to offset the decline in the effectiveness of the Sinovac vaccine – which the vast majority of health workers received – six months after the second injection.
Because vaccine coverage remained low, Budi added, the government would prioritize the inoculation of those who had yet to receive any vaccine.
Some 21 million people, or 10 percent the 208 million people targeted in the vaccination program, had been fully vaccinated as of Wednesday.
Read also: Antibodies from Sinovac shot fade after about 6 months: Study
“Ethically and morally, we [the government] will have to prioritize vaccination for those who have yet to receive their first jabs over anyone who wants to get a third shot," Budi said at a press briefing on Monday.
Authorities have blamed the sluggish vaccination progress on the lack of doses at the start of the year, but the country is expecting more doses to arrive in the coming months.
The Health Ministry is considering giving third shots to the wider public next year if vaccine supplies are sufficient, according to spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmizi, Kompas.com reported.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, meanwhile, has called for a halt to vaccine boosters until at least the end of September because of the widening gap in vaccine coverage between poor and wealthy countries, Reuters reported.
Read also: Indonesia begins to give third COVID-19 shots to 1.5 million health workers
"I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it," Tedros said.
High-income countries had administered around 50 doses per 100 people as of May, and that number has since doubled, according to the WHO, Reuters reported. Low-income countries have only administered 1.5 doses for every 100 people, largely because of a lack of supply.
