The Health Ministry claims that herd immunity against COVID-19 has been established in Indonesia, both through antibodies obtained through the vaccination programme and natural antibodies generated following infection by the virus.
Herd immunity is said to be achieved if 70-90 percent of the population already has immunity.
“What is certain is that from the survey, 86 percent of the population has antibodies, and with the coverage of the second dose of vaccination having reached 70 percent of the 208 million target, there must be herd immunity,” said Secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health at the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, to CNNIndonesia.com on Tuesday 8th March 2022.
Tarmizi then claimed that the development of coronavirus cases in Indonesia began to show an improving trend during the first week of March 2022, because the number of additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 began to decline. Nevertheless, the number of weekly deaths is still showing an increase.
For this reason, Tarmizi requested that the entire community remain disciplined in adhering to the health protocols both at home and when leaving the house.
Meanwhile, the government will continue to improve the surveillance strategy for testing, tracing, and treatment (3T), as well as preparing hospital capacity and the number of health workers. The vaccination and booster program will also be accelerated.
The government’s vaccination target of 208,265,720 people has touched 92.25 percent of the vaccination target who received the first dose of injection and 71.23 percent of the second dose per 7th March at 6pm.