TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR RI), Puan Maharani, has urged Papuan traditional leaders to help the government encourage residents to get vaccinated to expedite the achievement of herd immunity.

Efforts to reach the vaccination target in Papua will need the cooperation of many parties, including traditional leaders and religious leaders, who have an impact on the community, she opined.

"Traditional leaders and religious leaders have an important role in convincing the Papuan people of the importance of vaccination," she said in a written statement received here on Saturday.

Virus transmission can be handled if every region, including Papua, ensures that most of its residents have received the COVID-19 vaccination, she added.

Maharani gave instructions on the acceleration of vaccinations while meeting the Regional Leadership Coordination Forum (Forkopimda) of Papua province at the Papua Governor's Office in Jayapura on Saturday.

She called on officials in Papua province to expedite vaccinations to ensure the safety of Papua residents amid the pandemic.

"According to the report that I have received, vaccination coverage in Papua is still low, both for the first dose vaccination and second dose vaccination," she told the Papua Forkopimda members.

The government is targeting to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to 2,583,771 Papua residents. However, the vaccination coverage in Papua has only reached 22.62 percent for the first dose and 14.66 percent for the second dose, she noted.

As of September 30, 2021, the number of COVID-19 positive cases in Papua has reached 33,705, she said. For that reason, the Forkopimda must work harder to expedite vaccinations as an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, she added.

"Of course, the support from all parties should be one of our commitments so that vaccinations can run well throughout Papua region," Maharani remarked.

Read: Epidemiologist: 5 Papua PON Venues Located in Covid-19 Red Zones

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