Mimika Health Office improves vaccination services for the elderly

The Mimika Regency Health Office (Dinkes), Papua Province, continues to improve COVID-19 vaccination services for the target group of the elderly (elderly) over 60 years of age, considering that vaccination coverage in that group is still low.

The head of the Mimika Health Service, Reynold Ubra in Timika, said Saturday that the target of vaccination for the elderly group in Mimika is 8,474 people.

He explained that the coverage of the first dose of vaccination in the elderly group in Mimika was only 28.33 percent or 2,401 people, the second dose only reached 21.21 percent or 1,797 people and the third dose only reached 0.44 percent or 37 people, with the number of injections. a total of 4,235.

"There are several reasons why vaccination coverage among the elderly in Mimika is still quite low, one of which is because not all elderly people can be independent in accessing COVID-19 vaccination services provided in a number of health facilities, both local government and TNI-Polri," he said.

For a long time, the Mimika Health Office has designed a special vaccination service post for the elderly in the area, however, until now the plan has not been realized.

In the future, Reynold said, the Mimika Health Office will work closely with houses of worship in the city and its surroundings to be able to provide COVID-19 vaccination services for the elderly or officers must make visits to the homes of the elderly.

Reynold said that until now not all elderly people have received complete information about the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine to increase their immunity so that group immunity is formed at home and in the environment around where they live.

According to him, not a few of the elderly and the general public have not yet received COVID-19 vaccination services, because they are influenced by various false information that is widely scattered in the world of social media or deliberately exhaled by certain parties.

The elderly who have received the COVID-19 vaccination are limited to the Timika City area and the districts around Timika City. Meanwhile, in coastal areas and in mountainous areas, vaccination services have not yet been reached.

Based on data from the Mimika Health Office, the total target for COVID-19 vaccination in the region is 172,185 people.

For the target group of health human resources with a total target of 3,731 people, the first dose has reached 100 percent, the second dose has reached 93.33 percent or 3,482 people and the third dose has only reached 9.764 percent or 68.37 people.

In the target group of children aged 6-11 years with a total target of 20,905 people, the coverage of the first dose of vaccination only reached 20.93 percent or as many as 4,376 people, the second dose was 0.33 percent or reached 70 children.

Meanwhile in the group of adolescents aged 12-17 years with a total target of 26,970 people, the first dose has reached 52.98 percent or 14,288 people, the second dose is 41.21 percent or 11,113 people and the third dose has only reached 0.04 percent or as many as 0.04 percent. 11 people.

The highest vaccination coverage, apart from health human resources, also occurred in the target group of public officers with a total target of 57,250 people. The first dose has reached 100 percent, the second dose has reached 77.43 percent or 44,331 people and the third dose has only reached 2.17 percent or 1,245 people.

Furthermore, in the target group of the population aged 18-59 years with a total target of 54,855 people, the first dose was given to 47,614 people or 86.80 percent, the second dose was given to 41,727 people or 76.07 percent and the third dose was only given to 1,870 people. or 3.41 percent.

With the increasing number of positive confirmed cases of COVID-19 lately, from mid-January to the end of February, more than 1,200 cases have been reported in Mimika, Reynolds asked the local community to strictly adhere to health protocols and for people who have never been vaccinated to immediately get vaccination services, either the first, second or third dose or booster vaccine.

SOURCE: https://papua.antaranews.com/berita/675905/dinkes-mimika-ingkatkan-jasa-vaksinasi-for-lansia