The Health Ministry will allow recipients of Astrazeneca for their first two vaccines to receive a booster using the Pfizer vaccine.
The regulation was made after the Health Ministry updated the rules for administering COVID-19 booster doses in Indonesia.
Initially, the Ministry only provided three alternatives for giving boosters, but now there are four. An alternative addition is a booster for the AstraZeneca primary vaccine. This provision is stated in the circular number HK.02.02/II/252/2022 regarding the COVID-19 booster vaccination which was signed by the Director-General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Health Ministry, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, on 12th January 2022.
“For people with a primary dose of Astrazeneca, they can receive a half dose or 0.25 ml of the Moderna vaccine, or half dose of Pfizer vaccine at 0.15 ml,” said Rondonuwu.
The rules for giving a booster to those who received Sinovac for the first two shots is that they will be given a half dose of Pfizer vaccine or a half a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine booster.
For the time being, the Health Ministry has also implemented a heterologous booster vaccine scheme; the administration of the third dose of vaccine is different from the administration of the initial two doses.
“If there is a new follow-up dose regimen for vaccination, the program will be announced later,” continued Rondonuwu.
He also explained the procedure for injecting the booster vaccine. The same as the initial vaccines, it is given intramuscularly in the upper arm. A half dose injection will be done using a 0.3 ml auto-destruct syringe (ADS) which is marked with 0.15 ml and 0.25 ml dose sizes.
The booster vaccinations will be given in health care centers (puskesmas), hospitals owned by the central and local governments, as well as vaccination service posts coordinated by the Provincial or Regency/City Health Offices.