Indonesia to start Covid booster doses after 50% population fully inoculated

Jakarta: Indonesia will start administering Covid-19 booster shots after 50 per cent of the country’s population are fully vaccinated against the virus, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said.

“Booster vaccination is a sensitive issue related to equality. There are still countries that have not yet obtained access to Covid-19 vaccines,” Sadikin said at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

As Indonesia has reached 39 per cent of the current second doses of vaccines, Sadikin said that the booster would begin at the end of December, earlier than the initial plan to start in early 2022, reports Xinhua news agency.

The booster vaccines will be prioritised for the elderly with a higher mortality rate and will then be given free of charge to the poor, while others have to pay for their jabs.

The Indonesian government has extended its public mobility restrictions, locally known as PPKM, outside Java and Bali from November 9 to 22, as the transmission has decreased up to 97.5 per cent compared to the peak of the second wave of coronavirus infection in July.

Meanwhile, the restrictions in Java and Bali have been extended until November 15.

(IANS)