Indonesian President had given directions to accelerate booster vaccinations for new Omicron BA.2.75

Jakarta, The Gulf Observer: Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and several ministers discussed the surfacing of a new Omicron sub-variant BA.2.75 in Indonesia during a limited meeting on evaluation of Public Activity Restrictions (PPKM) at the Presidential Palace here, Monday.

“We also provided an update to the president that there is a new subvariant called BA.2.75, which has spread in India and has entered 15 countries, and it has entered Indonesia,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated here on Monday.

Sadikin remarked that currently, two cases of BA.2.75 were detected in Indonesia, with one identified in an international traveler in Bali, while the other case was detected in Jakarta that was estimated to be caused by local transmission, and the source was currently being investigated.

Nevertheless, the minister remarked that in general, taking into account the level of COVID-19 transmission based on WHO standards, Indonesia was still at level 1, with only Jakarta being at level 3 and Banten at level 2.

The minister noted that during the meeting, the president had given directions to accelerate booster vaccinations and use booster vaccine as a requirement for people to conduct several activities, with the objective of protecting the community.

As part of the 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.

According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of July 18, 2022, as many as 201,966,816 Indonesians had received the first vaccine dose, 169,582,051 were administered the second dose, and 53,126,957 had taken the booster dose.