THE country seeks to vaccinate 181.5 million people – about two-thirds of the population – by March 2022 and President Joko Widodo has called on the Cabinet to complete the programme by the end of 2021.
The nation expects its vaccination programme to cost more than 73 trillion rupiah (RM20.9bil).
It plans to be able to vaccinate 16 million people a month. The initial phase of inoculations will target
1.3 million health workers and 17.4 million public workers nationwide during the first quarter of 2021.
The country will offer free vaccines to people. With about 13,000 community health centres and 9,000 hospitals across the country, the government says it will be able complete its targeted vaccination to achieve mass immunity.
The world’s fourth most populous nation is banking on both Western and Chinese vaccines, ordering 125.5 million doses from Sinovac, 50 million from AstraZeneca Plc and another 50 million from Novavax Inc, while developing 57.6 million of its own Merah Putih.
It is now requesting 108 million free doses from the Gavi alliance, after previously saying it was seeking 54 million from the global vaccine facility.
Talks are also on with Pfizer Inc for 50 million doses and loaned cold storage facilities for the vaccine.
Joko got his first dose of the Sinovac shot on Jan 13 along with public and army representatives, which kicked off Indonesia’s inoculation programme.
Indonesia gave the first dose to 60,815 people in the first week of its mass inoculation drive. As of Friday, more than 132,000 healthcare workers had been given shots.
China’s Sinovac Biotech shipped three million doses of vaccines to the country in December; the local food and drug regulator approved them for emergency use this month.
Even before the regulator’s approval, the government started distributing the vaccines to its 34 provinces spread across the world’s largest archipelago.
Sinovac has shipped raw material for 45 million doses to be manufactured by Indonesia’s PT Bio Farma. — Bloomberg
