Indonesia need to vaccinate 70-percent population to enter endemic stage

Jakarta, March 3 (ANTARA) - One of the strategies to move from the pandemic phase of COVID-19 to endemic stage is vaccinating at least 70 percent of the population, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Head Laksana Tri Handoko stated. "All countries apply the same method, which is increasing the number of fully vaccinated people to a minimum of 70 percent of the population," Handoko remarked when contacted by ANTARA here on Thursday. Handoko believes it would be even better if at least 40 percent of Indonesia's population had received the third or booster dose. Apart from increasing vaccinations, the other strategy that must always be applied is maintaining health protocols, especially by wearing masks. Despite people having received the COVID-19 vaccine, they must continue to comply with health protocols since the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing. Earlier, the Ministry of Health had targeted that COVID-19 vaccination coverage will reach 70 percent of the population by June 2022. "The first dose of vaccination has reached 51.97 percent of Indonesia's 270-million population, and we hope to meet our vaccination target of 70 percent by June 2022," spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Siti Nadia Tarmizi stated during a virtual press conference accessed here on Tuesday. In addition to accelerating services to reach people that have not received the COVID-19 vaccine, the government continues to re-vaccinate people that have not been administered the second vaccine dose after more than six months of having received the first jab. As part of the efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021. President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program. According to data provided by the Health Ministry, as of March 3, 2022, nearly 191,110,409 Indonesians had received their first COVID-19 jab, 14,204,141 had been fully vaccinated and 11,324,273 had received the booster shot.