Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (ANTARA) - Head of Banjarmasin Health Office Machli Riyadi said that the city has recorded 73.09 percent COVID-19 vaccination coverage of the total 656,000 targets toward the end of the year.
Actually, he admitted here on Wednesday, the coverage has not increased significantly in the last week, especially for the first vaccine dose ---whereas the city has set a target of 80 percent coverage by the end of the year.
One of the reasons, he estimated, was that the public interest in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine jab is declining.
"We don't know what caused it. Is it because we have zero cases, so people think that getting vaccinated is not necessary, or anything else," he said.
Therefore, his party continues to strive with the assistance of the TNI-Polri to increase the achievement of vaccination per day through various ways, including house to house, and even by providing basic food assistance.
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Another effort is to open a vaccination post on Jalan A Yani km 2, Central Banjarmasin, on December 24, 2021. The post also serves as a monitoring of people's mobility during NYE holidays.
"Hopefully with this movement, the public interest will grow again, so that the target to build herd immunity can be achieved by the end of the year," said Machli Riyadi.
He also said that what is continuing to strive for at this time is to increase the achievement of vaccination for the elderly, which has only reached 37 percent of the 45,000 targets.
"It is not easy to get the elderly to vaccinate, but we continue to invite them," he said.
So far, the total case of COVID-19 in Banjarmasin City is 15,874, some 15,327 had recovered, and 544 people died.
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