President Jokowi reminds people to get vaccinated before Eid al-Fitr exodus

Jakarta, The Gulf Observer: President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has reminded people to get primary COVID-19 vaccine doses and booster doses before joining the 2023 Eid al-Fitr exodus to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.

“What is the most important one is that vaccination is essential. Booster is essential. Therefore, those who have not, please immediately get the booster,” he noted in Depok, West Java, on Thursday.

According to the president, primary and booster vaccine doses are crucial to maintain people’s immunity amid the high mobility during the 2023 Eid exodus.

“Once again, those who have not (been vaccinated), especially (those who) have not received the booster, immediately ask to get vaccinated, so that our immunity is maintained against COVID-19,” he stressed.

The president drew attention to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the last few days. Nevertheless, Indonesia’s daily count of COVID-19 cases has not surpassed the safe limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The WHO standard is less than eight thousand, and we are at 600-900. I think ours is still managed, controlled well,” he stated.

In addition, based on a serosurvey conducted by the Ministry of Health, the immunity of Indonesian citizens has reached 98.5 percent.

“It means that it (immunity) is very high,” he remarked.

Based on the government’s projection, for this year’s Eid exodus, 123 million people will be joining the exodus, or an increase of 45 percent as compared to 86 million people recorded in 2022.

In a bid to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting 234,666,020 citizens.

According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of April 12, 2023, some 203,827,395 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 174,862,189 have been administered the second dose, 68,685,977 have taken the third dose or first booster, and 3,116,927 people have received the fourth dose or second booster.