Second Booster are Very Important for Health Workers in Indonesia
- tvOne/ Teguh Joko Sutrisno
VIVA – On July 31, 2022, people on the COVID-19 Report platform stated that 2,087 health workers in Indonesia had died in the fight against COVID-19.
This death tally does not include 386 other health workers, whose time of death was unknown. The number of deaths was the highest among doctors, reaching 751, followed by 670 nurses and 398 midwives.
The rest of the 80 people comprised medical laboratory technology experts, pharmacists, dentists, radiologists, dental therapists, sanitarians, pharmacists, ambulance workers, electromedics, epidemiologists, entomologists, and medical physicists.
The rising trend of fallen health workers started since the March-May 2020 period, with 36 cases, and thereafter, the tally rose to 165 in January 2021 and hit its peak, at 502 cases, in July 2021 that coincided with the emergence of the delta variant.
Tenaga kesehatan di Solo.
- VIVA/ Fajar Sodik.
This situation affects the mental and physical state of health workers. The mental health of these workers is affected by the increasing working hours as well as pressure and anxiety over contracting the coronavirus disease from patients.
The researcher team from University of Indonesia highlighted that 83 percent of health workers in Indonesia experience a similar phenomenon, with moderate to severe degree, which affects the stability of public services in hospitals.
At the end of July 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic situation in Indonesia had shown an upward trend once more based on the rate of confirmed cases, active cases, death count, and hospital occupancy.
Based on the Health Ministry's daily report as per Sunday, the count of confirmed cases rose three folds since the start of July 2022, from two thousand to more than six thousand cases.
The daily death count rose by 10 people, on average, within the last few days. The average weekly positive cases also reached 6.07 percent, which is above the five-percent threshold set by the World Health Organization (WHO), within the last three weeks.
The number of health workers, who died, also increased once again, with the average being one to three people during the March-July 2022 period.
Based on this experience, various health profession organizations encourage the Health Ministry to immediately develop a system to protect health workers by recommending to take the second booster vaccine dose.
This recommendation came from the Indonesian Doctor Association (IDI), Indonesian Nurse Association (PPNI), to the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI).
On July 28, 2022, the ministry issued Circular Letter No. HK.02.02/C/ 3615 /2022 addressed to all regional heads in Indonesia to organize the administration of second booster vaccination. The vaccination targets 1.9 million health workers, starting from July 29, 2022. (ant)
