TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – As many as 4,514 of the 8,513 targeted healthcare workers in the Indonesian city of Batam received their second booster shots amid the emergence of the XBB subvariant of COVID-19.
The second booster shots have been provided to the city’s medical staff since August 5, 2022, the head of disease control and prevention at the Batam city health office, Melda Sari, said on Saturday.
“This second booster is given to healthcare workers in public health centers, hospitals and health clinics,” she said, adding that the city government has set a goal to vaccinate 8 513 medical workers.
As of Nov. 4, about 53.02 percent of targeted recipients in Batam, located about 20 kilometers from Singapore, had been vaccinated, Sari said.
Coronavirus infections first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Since then, they have spread to more than 215 countries and territories, including Indonesia.
The Indonesian government officially confirmed the country’s first cases on March 2, 2020. To combat the spread of COVID-19, the government launched a national vaccination program on January 13, 2021.
Since then, a total of 836,223 Batam residents over the age of 18 have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 733,563 adults have received the second dose, according to Batam Health Bureau records.
Additionally, in the 12-17 age group, at least 127,634 adolescents received the first dose and 114,284 received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, in the age group of 6 to 11 years, the number of recipients of the first dose in the city of Batam reached 120,814 and recipients of the second dose 100,844, according to the Health Bureau of Battam.
The third dose or booster vaccination is also provided to protect the inhabitants of the city. The Batam The Health Bureau said at least 497,725 residents, including 14,859 seniors, received their first booster shots.
Currently, many countries are struggling to deal with the spread of the XBB subvariant.
Indonesian Health Ministry spokesman Mohammad Syahril said on Friday that the XBB subvariant has been detected in 28 countries.
In Indonesia, the ministry recorded a total of 12 cases of XBB and XBB.1 Omicron subvariants.
Two of the 12 cases were detected in overseas travelers from Singapore, while the other 10 cases involved local transmission, he said.
ANTARA
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