JAKARTA, June 17 (Reuters) – More than 350 Indonesian doctors and healthcare workers contracted COVID-19 despite being vaccinated with Sinovac, and dozens have been hospitalized, officials said amid concerns about the effectiveness of some vaccines against more virulent ones Virus variants emerge.
Most were asymptomatic and self-isolating at home, said Badai Ismoyo, director of the Kudu District Health Department in central Java, but dozen were hospitalized with high fevers and declining oxygen levels.
Kudus is battling an outbreak believed to be triggered by the more easily transmissible Delta variant, which has increased bed occupancy in the district to over 90%.
Classified as a priority group, Indonesian health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated when the vaccination campaign began in January.
Almost all of them have received the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, according to the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI).
While the number of Indonesian health workers dying from COVID-19 has decreased significantly – from 158 deaths in January this year to 13 in May this year, according to data initiative group LaporCOVID-19 – public health experts say hospital admissions in Java cause concern.
“The data shows that they have the delta variant [in Kudus] Hence, it is not surprising that the breakthrough infection is higher than before because as we know the majority of health care workers in Indonesia got Sinovac and we still do not know how effective it is against the Delta variant in the real world is, ”said Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Griffith University, Australia.
A spokesman for Sinovac and the Indonesian Ministry of Health were not immediately available to comment on the effectiveness of Sinovac’s CoronaVac against newer coronavirus variants.
In grappling with one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, with more than 1.9 million cases and 53,000 deaths, Indonesia’s doctors and nurses have taken a heavy toll with 946 deaths.
Many are now suffering from pandemic fatigue and are taking an increasingly laissez-faire approach to health protocols after vaccination, said Lenny Ekawati of LaporCOVID-19.
“This is a fairly common phenomenon these days, not just within the community but also in the healthcare sector,” she said. “They think they are safe because they are vaccinated.”
But as more cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant are identified in the world’s fourth most populous nation, the data begins to tell a different story.
Across Indonesia, according to the data initiative group, at least five doctors and a nurse have died of COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, even though one had only received his first vaccination.
A senior physician has died in Kudus, IDI said, although he is known to have had comorbidity.
In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the radiologist Dr. Prijo Sidipratomo told Reuters that he knew of at least half a dozen doctors in the city who were hospitalized last month despite being vaccinated with COVID-19, with one currently being treated in the intensive care unit.
“It’s alarming to us because we can’t just rely on vaccinations,” he said, urging people to strictly adhere to health protocols.
Weeks after the Eid Al-Fitr Muslim holiday, Indonesia has seen a spike in cases, with the positivity rate surpassing 23% on Wednesday and daily cases approaching 10,000, the highest since late February.
In its latest situation report, the World Health Organization called on Indonesia to implement a stricter lockdown with increased transmission due to worrying variants and a “drastic increase in bed occupancy” that requires urgent action.
Reporting by Kate Lamb in Sydney and Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Arrangement by Michael Perry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/hundreds-of-indonesian-healthcare-workers-contract-covid-19-despite-vaccination-dozens-hospitalised/
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