Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government will push COVID-19 booster or third dose vaccinations starting from January 2022, the coordinator of Presidential Special Staff Anak Agung Gede Ngurah (AAGN), Ari Dwipayana, has said.
"The government will push booster vaccinations starting from January 2022, while starting to inject vaccines to children aged 6–11 years, and continuing to optimize vaccinations for the elderly," he informed at the 2022 Outlook presentation on Monday.
He further said that the government is hoping that locally-made Red and White vaccines could be used in 2022 to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of booster and regular vaccines.
Currently, the Red and White vaccine has reached the clinical trial stage, he added.
According to Dwipayana, Indonesia has successfully controlled the COVID-19 pandemic. The peak of the COVID-19 wave for the Delta variant occurred in July 2021, with 56,767 cases reported per day, he said.
However, as of December 10, 2021, the number of cases per day has drastically reduced to just 192, he noted.
However, citing a directive from President Joko Widodo, he said that Indonesians must not assume that the pandemic is over as the Omicron variant has been detected in many countries around the world.
He also said that globally, there are still problems regarding the gap in vaccine access.
"Some 96 developing countries have not met the vaccination target set by the WHO (World Health Organization) to vaccinate 40 percent of the population. On the other hand, millions of vaccines have expired in developed countries," he added.
He emphasized that the handling of the pandemic must be comprehensive and touch all parts of the world.
"Indonesia is the country with the 5th largest number of vaccinations in the world as of December 9, 2021," he informed.
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