Andi Firdaus, Raka Adji, Jakarta – The number of people receiving the third or booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia has topped 50 million as of 12 p.m. on Monday, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.
Data received by ANTARA from the task force here on Monday showed that the total number of citizens receiving their third COVID-19 vaccine increased by 105,239 on Monday, taking the total tally to 50,132,890.
Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two shots under the nationwide vaccination program, swelled by 37,068 to reach 168,860,843.
The task force's data also showed that the number of Indonesians who have received at least the first dose grew by 13,271 to touch 201,379,547 as of Monday.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.
Based on the task force's data, so far, 96.70 percent of the targeted recipients nationally have received the first vaccine dose, 81.08 percent have received the second dose, and 24.07 percent have received the third dose.
Earlier, speaking at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Sunday, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had urged the community to get the vaccine immediately to strengthen immunity against COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health, together with the University of Indonesia, is conducting the third sero-survey from June to July 2022 to measure the level of antibodies in vaccine recipients.
The survey is required to provide scientific, fact-based inputs for President Joko Widodo to decide on the government's policy direction.
The minister informed that the first sero-survey had shown that around 88 percent of Indonesians had developed antibodies against COVID-19, while the second sero-survey found that 99.2 percent of citizens had antibodies against the virus.
According to Sadikin, the sero-survey will be carried out regularly to monitor coronavirus transmission in the community.
Source: https://en.antaranews.com/news/236449/indonesias-booster-dose-coverage-crosses-50-million-mar