By Mohd Shukri Ishak
JAKARTA: Health workers in Indonesia will be given a third vaccine – the Moderna vaccine – to further increase their resistance to COVID-19.
In a press conference through a webinar today, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the 3rd vaccination programme (booster), involving 1.47 million health workers, will start next week.
Health workers were the first group to be vaccinated through the national vaccination programme which started on January 13, using the Sinovac vaccine. According to local media reports, since the beginning of the pandemic until June 28, a total of 1,031 health workers in the republic died as a result of COVID-19.
According to data posted by the National Disaster Mitigation Agency via its Twitter account @BNPB_Indonesia today, more than 35.7 million have received the first vaccine, while more than 14.8 million have received the second vaccine in Indonesia.
Since June, new positive cases have started to rise sharply as a result of the Delta variant, which to date has recorded over 2.4 million total positive cases.
For the past 24 hours, Indonesia recorded 37,124 new positive cases, while another 871 deaths were recorded, bringing the total death toll now to 64,631 people.
— BERNAMA
