New regulations being considered by the Ministry of Health could mean that Indonesians won’t have to wait so long to get their COVID-19 booster jabs.
When the booster shot program was launched earlier this year, a minimum six-month interval was required between the second dose and the booster dose. This week, in the government’s attempt to expedite the booster shot rollout to the elderly, it reduced the interval period to three months for those aged 60 and above.
And now, the ministry is mulling the same interval period for all age groups.
“Soon we will allow booster shots for all age groups with the interval of between three to six months,” Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono said today.
Dante did not specify exactly when the interval period would be shortened for all.
The deputy minister did, however, stress the importance of booster shots in overcoming new COVID-19 outbreaks and especially the Omicron variant. Citing Ministry of Health data, the risk of death from COVID-19 is reduced by 97 percent with a booster shot.
In addition, Dante said the government may also consider administering second booster shots (or fourth overall) to the public should health experts recommend the measure in the future.
Indonesia is concurrently administering primary doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and booster shots. Nearly 70 percent, amounting to some 141 million people, of the targeted population have received their second dose, and the program for the administration of the first and second doses is expected to conclude in June.
