Epidemiologist Says Indonesians' Immunity Level against COVID-19 Is High

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Epidemiologist and biostatistics expert from Airlangga University’s (UNAIR) Public Health Faculty, Windhu Purnomo, stated that Indonesians' immune system is relatively high, proven by a seroprevalence survey conducted by the government in tandem with a number of universities.

The survey was held from November to December 2021 in a bid to see the percentage of the population who had immunity against the coronavirus that caused COVID-19.

"The result shows that almost 86.6 percent of the Indonesian population already obtained immunity due to vaccination and infection," said Windhu as quoted from UNAIR's official website on Tuesday, May 24, 2022.

In March 2022, he said, another seroprevalence survey was carried out specifically in Java island. The result showed that as many as 99.2 percent of the population had developed immunity.

Those results obviously explained why the epidemiological conditions in Indonesia are very good and that used by the government as the basis to relax the mask mandate outdoors.

"But, is it [enforced] at the right moment? In my opinion, the trend of case surge can be cleared to see four weeks after Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr) or long holidays," he argued.

Windhu, therefore said the government should have waited four weeks to observe whether there will be a spike in positive cases. However, he predicted that the COVID-19 condition will continue to improve and no significant spike in infections will occur. 

DEVY ERNIS

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