Luhut Mulls Requiring Vaccine Booster for Travel
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23 June 2022 16:01 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan was considering plans to determine a vaccine booster as a travel requirement that will take effect in July following the rising number of COVID-19 active cases.
“Because if the number [of active cases] continues to rise in July, we will perhaps add a booster jab into the travel requirements. This is for all of us. So I ask for people’s understanding,” said Luhut at Lagawi Festival event broadcasted virtually today, June 23, 2022.
He explained that the national case number recently increased due to the entry of Omicron BA4 and BA5 subvariants. On June 22, the number of active cases reached 11,300, or 98 percent lower than the peak of cases of the Omicron variant.
“We need to watch this,” Luhut asserted.
The vigilance, he went on, must be strengthened albeit the hospital bed occupancy rate was still low at 1.9 percent or 96.5 percent lower than the peak of Omicron cases and the death rate was low or 99 percent below the peak of omicron cases. Besides, the positivity rate is also below the WHO standard of 5 percent, which was at 3.3 percent.
Luhut stated that the surge in infections occurred in almost all countries around the globe, including the United States.
“Singapore, which is close to us, sees a high increase in cases. Malaysia also reports a high case surge. So I ask all to be disciplined, we must listen to the government's directives regarding this,” he said.
Luhut emphasized that vigilance is necessary to prevent the same mistake from recurring that caused the sharp surge of COVID-19 cases. He advised people who have not received the third dose of the vaccine to register themselves immediately.
MUHAMMAD HENDARTYO
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