86.6 pct of Indonesians have COVID-19 antibodies: survey

Jakarta (Indonesia), March 19: The majority or 86.6 percent of the Indonesian population aged above 1 have COVID-19 antibodies obtained through vaccination or after they were infected, showed a serological survey conducted by the government from November to December 2021.
"This figure includes 89.6 percent of those who have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines and 98.7 percent of those who are fully vaccinated," one of the survey researchers, Iwan Ariawan, said on Friday at a press conference.
Besides, of those who claimed to have never been positive for COVID-19 and did not receive the coronavirus vaccine, 73.9 percent have antibodies, indicating the coronavirus had spread to more people without being detected.
This is the first survey on a national scale, involving 20,622 respondents from all provinces in the Southeast Asian country. The survey will be carried out regularly every six months.
Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin noted that wearing a mask is still mandatory, as antibodies helped reduce hospitalizations and deaths but did not prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
Source: Xinhua