“This is because of various factors, an important one being the lowered number of available booster vaccination centers. Even though the effectiveness of the vaccine in relation with infection protection goes down three months after the injection, protection against serious illnesses is maintained and improved by taking the third, even fourth booster doses. Therefore, booster shots indirectly helps Indonesia to transition from a country with a pandemic to one with an endemic disease. The WHO has declared that the endemic status is within reach… Don’t lose to euphoria and destroy everything we have worked so hard for. We need to maintain our vigilance. No one is safe until everyone is safe,” she said.
At the same event, Prof. Dr. dr. Hinky Hindra Irawan Satari, SpA(K), M.Trop.Paed, Chairman of the National Commission for Post-Immunization Side Effects and member of the National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana – “BNPB”) Covid-19 Task Force’s Expert Team, declares that we need to maintain good habits such as wearing filter masks, because “Viruses primarily enter our bodies through the nostrils. They are in the air that we breathe, carried and distributed by everyone who are physically around us. Wearing filter mask reduces the risk of infection transmission. Viruses wait for us to get careless, and we have yet to defeat them. So stay vigilant, and keep your filter mask on!”
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Finally, both dr. Erlina and Prof. Hinky declares that there is a possibility for taking off filter masks in open spaces, but there are requirements to meet. “The possibility of taking off our filter masks exists not because we are frequently vaccinated, but because of higher booster coverage. This reduces and controls virus transmission rate,” dr. Erlina said. (est)