350 health workers in Indonesia’s central Java infected despite vaccination

JAKARTA : Indonesia’s health department in central Java is facing serious crisis with over 350 doctors and medical workers, who have been vaccinated with Sinovac, affected by COVID-19. There is growing concern about the efficacy of some vaccines against more infectious variants. Most of the workers were asymptomatic and self- isolating at home, according to the head of the health office in the district of Kudus in central Java, but dozens were in hospital with high fevers and declining oxygen saturation levels.

Health workers in the district are battling an outbreak believed to be driven by the more transmissible Delta variant which has pushed up its bed occupancy rates above 90%. Designated as a priority group, healthcare workers were among the first to be vaccinated when inoculations began in January. Most had received the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, according to Indonesian Medical Association. The World Health Organization (WHO) approved emergency use of Sinovac's vaccine this month, saying results showed it prevented symptomatic disease in 51% of recipients and prevented severe COVID-19 and hospital stays in all of those studied.

In recent weeks, 946 health workers lost their lives in one of Asia's worst outbreaks, that also saw 1.9 million infections and 53,000 deaths.