The spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination from the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, has said as part of the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation’s (ITAGI) recommendation, the third dose of vaccine is planned for next year.
This is being done with the consideration that there has been a decrease in immunity after six months of the second injection of the Sinovac vaccine. Thus, a vaccine booster for the public needs to be planned.
Nadia emphasised that until now, the third dose of vaccine is only being given to health workers.
“We know that the risk of exposure to health workers is very high when cases increase considerably, so additional protection needs to be added,” she said.
Furthermore, Nadia said, ITAGI also suggested that there should be supporting research in order to obtain evidence-based data to determine whether to offer a booster vaccination in all communities in bulk.
The recommended research is to examine the anti-RBD antibody at two to four weeks after the booster vaccination, conducted randomly. Then, there will need to be monitoring of breakthrough of severe COVID-19 cases in all health workers who are given a vaccine booster.