“COVID-19 is dangerous. But, the humans who carry COVID-19 are far more dangerous,” Doni said in a statement on Sunday, as quoted by tempo.co.

Doni said that many people were continuing to ignore health protocols, such as maintaining physical distance, wearing a mask and avoiding crowds, as they assumed they were immune to COVID-19 or even doubted there was a pandemic at all.

“We need to realize that discipline is a must at all times. If we are even just a little careless and ignore the health protocols, we will be exposed,” he said.

“COVID-19 is real. It is not fabricated and not a conspiracy.”

Doni, who is also the head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), also reminded the community that those engaging in activities outside of their homes without properly protecting themselves would end up harming their family members and those closest to them.

Around 7 percent of COVID-19 patients currently receiving treatment at the COVID-19 emergency hospital in the former athletes village in Jakarta said they had rarely or never left home prior to their treatment, Doni said, reiterating his previous statement.

There are no more safe places, he said, adding that the threat of infection was ever-present and that humans would continue to be the intermediaries of the virus.

Doni explained that if a vaccine was found, it would not completely eliminate the virus and only provide stronger immunity against infection.

“COVID-19 will continue to exist. Those who are vaccinated will be able to withstand it, while those who are not vaccinated will still be exposed,” he said.

In a related development, Indonesia's Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) is set to visit the facility of China’s pharmaceutical company Sinovac in Beijing to assure the quality of a COVID-19 candidate vaccine currently being developed by the latter, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi has revealed.

“It’s part of our efforts to carefully prepare COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesia,” Retno said through a teleconference on Monday.

The country has secured priority access to the vaccine bulk produced by Sinovac, and will start to receive it in November. State-owned pharmaceutical firm Biofarma will then process the bulk, an aqueous form of the purified antigens, into smaller doses of ready-to-use vaccines in its facility in Bandung, West Java.

Both companies have closely coordinated in developing the candidate vaccine, dubbed CoronaVac. They launched last month a late-stage human trial for the candidate vaccine involving at least 1,620 Indonesian citizens.

 “Sinovac visited Bio Farma’s facility in Bandung last week to check out the clinical trial results,” Minister Retno further said, adding that the results turned out to be “good and there were no serious side effects”.

In its mid-stage clinical trial involving 600 participants in China, the candidate vaccine did not cause any serious side effects and the rate of fever was relatively low compared with other COVID-19 candidate vaccines, Reuters reported previously.

Sinovac has to test its vaccine abroad because China is no longer a suitable site for late-stage trials due to the low number of new infection cases. CoronaVac has also undergone a late-stage trial in Brazil expected to involve 9,000 people.