Endemic Status Requires Leaders Joint Agreement: Minister

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Implementing an endemic status requires a joint agreement of all leaders based on the controlled situation of Covid-19 in the country, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said.

Budi made the statement on the sidelines of the COMSTECH-OIC Fellowship Program and inauguration of the OIC COE Network Laboratory at the Health Ministry building on Thursday, Sept. 15.

The minister said that on account of the global scale of the pandemic, if it has ended, then all state leaders must be uniform in declaring its end.

He said that the current pandemic situation in Indonesia is relatively under control. The situation has been proven by the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron that caused a new wave in other countries but not in Indonesia.

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He said that one of the challenges for Indonesia to be free from the pandemic status is the booster vaccination coverage which is still relatively low.

The minister estimated that people’s immunity from primary vaccinations will decline in early 2023. Hence, if there is another Covid-19 wave in the world, then Indonesia will potentially be affected.

“The (coverage of) third dose vaccination in Indonesia is low. After six months (immunity) will decrease, including my immunity: it has declined,” he said while referring to his recent Covid-19 infection.

The minister called on the public to immediately access booster vaccination services in all available healthcare facilities.

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Indonesia detected the first two cases of Covid-19 in March 2020. As of Sept. 14, the government recorded 6,400,035 Covid-19 cases, with 6,211,796 recoveries, and 157,828 deaths.

To boost community immunity, the government launched a nationwide vaccination program on Jan. 13, 2021, targeting as many as 234,666,020 citizens.

So far, 204,227,914 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 170,839,673 have been administered the second dose, 62,161,753 have taken the third dose or first booster dose, and 513,741 have received the fourth dose or second booster dose.

Source: State News Antara