New cases and active Covid-19 cases in Indonesia showed a downward trend during the August-September 2022 period.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, as of September 29, 2022, approximately 63.46 million people had received a third dose or booster Covid-19 vaccine.
This means that booster vaccination coverage in the country has only reached 27.05% of the total vaccination target of 234.66 million people.
The majority of booster vaccine recipients came from vulnerable and general community groups, namely 44.10 million people. This is equivalent to 31.24% of the target of 141.21 million people.
Then, booster vaccine recipients from the public service group totaled 9.03 million people, or approximately 52.13% of the target, and from the elderly group, 6.71 million people, or approximately 31.14% of the target.
The number of health workers who have received the booster vaccine is 1.75 million people, or 119.47% of the target; educators, 834,440 people; community groups, 651,680 people; and others, 372,050 people.
Although Covid-19 cases in Indonesia have decreased, the Ministry of Health continues to urge the Indonesian public to immediately get their booster vaccination.
"Our current challenge is that the decline in Covid-19 cases has led to a decrease in public attention to booster vaccinations," said the Acting Director of Immunization Management at the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes), Prima Yosephine, as quoted by Antara.com on Monday (26/9/2022).
The decline in Covid-19 cases, according to Prima, has led most people to believe that the situation is safe and that booster vaccines are not an urgent need.
However, she continued, booster vaccines are just as important as the first and second vaccines in boosting immunity and preventing severe impacts from Covid-19 infection.