Around 3,400 lecturers, educational staff, and retirees of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) were vaccinated against Covid-19 at Sasana Budaya Ganesha Building. Including lecturers and staff of ITB School of Business and Management. The vaccination lasted three days from Monday (22/3/2021) to Wednesday (24/3/2021). 

ITB Rector Wirahadikusumah Reini said that the vaccination of ITB citizens represented support for the program of the central government in creating herd immunity. However, after vaccinating the lecturers and education staff, it is not certain that face-to-face learning at ITB will resume next semester. ITB will wait for the directives from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

“Of course we will (wait) until the final effort, we follow the directives from the Ministry of Education and Culture, the regional government, the municipal government,” said Reini in an online media conference, Monday (22/3/2021).

ITB has prepared a combination learning system between online and offline since the end of 2020 to be implemented when the campus opens. Even now, four master study programs at the ITB Jatinangor Campus have tried to implement a mixed learning system between online and offline. Reini hoped that the mixed learning system can be gradually implemented in stages more broadly in other study programs for the next semester.

ITB Institute Secretary Widjaja Martokusumo added, pursuant to the latest instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there was no requirement for students to be vaccinated in order to participate in face-to-face learning. The condition required to carry out face-to-face learning is class occupancy at a maximum of 25 per cent of the room capacity. However, he hoped that by the time the campus opens, many students will already be vaccinated against Covid-19.

 

The Dean of SBM ITB Utomo Sarjono Putro added, giving vaccines constituted a commitment to support government programs.

Vaccination is a form of preparation for face-to-face lectures.

“The target for the vaccination of SBM ITB lecturers is 100 percent achieved. All lecturers participated both from the Bandung and Jakarta campus,” said Utomo.

Students get vaccines

Head of the Disease Prevention and Control Division of West Java Provincial Health Office Marion Siagian said, apart from lecturers, the government will also provide vaccines to students. Students will get vaccines in stage III and IV vaccination activities together with the general public. It is estimated that the provision of vaccines to the general public will begin in June 2021.

“Students are in stages III and IV in vulnerable and general community groups. This is closely related to the availability of existing vaccines,” said Marion.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 survivors must wait three months after recovering from Covid-19 to get vaccinated. This is due to remnant antibodies that can prevent Covid-19 in the bodies of Covid-19 survivors.

Currently, in stage II vaccination activities, the number of elderly people and public service workers in West Java who have been vaccinated is still far from the target. Of the 4.5 million targeted elderly people to be vaccinated, only 59,608 or 1.35% of the elderly were vaccinated based on data on Sunday (21/3/2021). Meanwhile, of the 2.1 million public service workers to be vaccinated, only 299,505 people were already vaccinated. Therefore, the media is expected to encourage elderly people and public service workers to be vaccinated in health facilities.

SBM ITB Actions Related to Covid-19