By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

The Indonesian government has received a grant of 8 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the Covax Facility. The COVID-19 vaccine has begun to be given to health workers and health support personnel as the third dose of vaccine. The high increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 has prompted the Government to specifically provide additional protection to health workers who are faced with a high risk of COVID-19 transmission on a daily basis.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The provision of the third dose of vaccination for health workers has also received a recommendation from the National Immunization Expert Advisory Committee or ITAGI based on the results of a study conducted and submitted to the Ministry of Health.

In addition to the third dose of vaccination for health workers, the Ministry of Health has also issued a policy that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is given to participants who have never received a COVID-19 vaccination.

‘We urge the local government to give the Moderna brand vaccine as the third dose only to health workers. In addition to health workers, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is also intended for the public, especially pregnant women and people with comorbidities, who have never received any vaccinations,” explained dr. Siti Nadia Tarmizi M. Epid, Spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination at the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

The Ministry of Health explained that the third dose of vaccination for health workers can use the vaccine with the same platform (Sinovac) or a different platform (Moderna), with a minimum interval of giving the third dose of vaccination 3 months after the second dose is given.

Especially for people who have never received a vaccination, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is given in 2 (two) doses with an interval of 4 weeks, so that the vaccine allocated in the 2nd week of August 2021 is to meet the needs of 2 (two) doses at once.

Meanwhile, vaccination for pregnant women starting on August 2, 2021 is recommended for pregnant women with priority in high-risk areas. Recommended vaccines other than Moderna are Pfizer and Sinovac as per availability. For the administration of one dose of COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women starting in the second trimester of pregnancy, and for the second dose it is carried out according to the interval of the type of vaccine given. For example, for Moderna’s vaccine, the 1 and 2 dose intervals are 4 weeks.

Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries that had widely rolled out Chinese-made coronavirus vaccines are turning away from the shots in favor of Western alternatives as they scramble to contain deadly outbreaks caused by the delta variant.

Indonesia is one of the hardest hit countries with COVID-19 recently. In the past 28 days, officials have reported over 1 million cases and nearly 44,ooo deaths.

This is the third most cases during this period (behind the US and India) and by far the most COVID-19 fatalities.