TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia is seeing a second surge of Covid-19 cases, along with the government’s mass-vaccination drive. A public discourse has even linked between the two and blames the vaccination as the cause of the case surge.

Experts refuted these rumors. A member of volunteer group relawan Covid-19, Dr. Muhammad Fajri Addai, said that the surge of coronavirus cases that exceeded 54,000 as of July 14 is mainly caused by another factor.

“The sudden growth of Covid-19 cases is not because the vaccination program is ineffective but is mainly because of human behavior,” Addai wrote on his Instagram post, Bisnis.com reported.

However, he asserted that the vaccination itself does not make a vaccine recipient immediately immune to the virus. He reminded the people that practicing proper health protocols is as important as the government’s attempt in tracing, testing, and treating Covid-19 cases.

“Vaccinations are yet able to prevent another case surge if the scope of the vaccination remains low as it is today. In order to take back control of the pandemic, vaccinations need to be accelerated along with members of the public implementing stricter health protocols, all the while the government promotes better 3T (testing, tracing, and treating),” said the doctor on his social media post.

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BISNIS