Jakarta. The Indonesian government is determined to vaccinate the entire target population against Covid-19 by the end of this month, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.

At least 92 percent of more than 208 million eligible citizens have received at least one dose of the vaccine as of Saturday, government figures show.

"We plan to get 100 percent of the target population vaccinated by at least a single dose in the end of March," Health Ministry spokeswoman Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.

Government data also reveals that 70.7 percent of the target population are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

“But we will not stop there. We aim to fully vaccinate at least 70 percent of the whole Indonesian population ultimately. The booster dose is also publicly available and can be taken within three months after the last jab,” Siti added.

Southeast Asia’s biggest country is home to more than 273 million people.

The government has expanded the vaccination group to children as young as six years old. It is believed that when 70 percent of the whole population are fully vaccinated, the country will reach the so-called population immunity against Covid-19.

“Delivering the second dose for citizens is the more important accomplishment in our attempts to bring this pandemic under control,” she said.

Indonesia has seen a dramatic surge in new cases during the latest wave of infections triggered by the Omicron variant since early January but data suggested that the country was past its peak in mid-February. 

It recorded 30,156 new cases on Saturday, bringing the overall tally to 5.7 million cases, including 149,918 deaths.

The main concern is that the country still has more than half a million active cases of Covid-19 although a vast majority of them do not require hospitalization.

The hospital bed occupancy rate currently stands at a manageable 30 percent at the national level.