Officials Get Vaccine Boosters; Health Ministry to Reprimand Regional Offices

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Health Ministry’s Acting Director-General of Disease Prevention and Control, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said the third dose of Covid-19 vaccines using Moderna should only be administered to health workers. The ministry would reprimand heads of regional health offices following claims by a number of officials that they have received the vaccine boosters.

“We have released the appeal and the written circular. I issued it again yesterday because of public demands after claims there are non-health workers who have got the third dose. So we instantly made the circular, a reprimand, to the head of health offices,” said Maxi.

Besides, the ministry made an integrity pact for heads of health offices and hospitals not to administer a third dose other than to health workers.

Previously, East Kalimantan Governor Isran Noor claimed to have received a third dose of Covid-19 vaccines using Moderna in a dialogue with President Jokowi. The video of the dialogue had been posted to the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel but is now edited.

In a working meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Health Commission on Wednesday, August 25, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin did not explicitly answer questions regarding the Moderna vaccine boosters for officials. He only confirmed the possibility of administering a third dose of vaccines to the general public.

According to Budi, the vaccine booster is proven to provide better protection from Covid-19. He said the World Health Organization (WHO) did not recommend it not for clinical reasons, but ethical reasons.

“With the limited number of vaccines, it will indeed be more appropriate if we give the opportunity to others who haven't even had the chance to get the first injection,” said Budi Gunadi.

Read: 34 Percent Healthcare Workers Receive Vaccine Booster

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