Task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmita said the regional administrations were allowed to punish those who refuse to be vaccinated in order to discipline the public in receiving the free-for-all national COVID-19 vaccine.

“Basically, the decision to hand out punishments lies with the regional administrations. Such an approach may be taken if it is effective in disciplining the public to receive the vaccines in order to easily build herd immunity,” said Wiku as quoted by antaranews.com on Thursday.

He went on to say that herd immunity would allow the country to protect its citizens from COVID-19, even though not everyone will be inoculated for various reasons, adding that Indonesia would only use vaccines that were safe, halal, effective and have fewer side effects.

Earlier this week, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo expressed his hopes of running the first phase of the national vaccination drive in January.

“Insya Allah [God willing], we will start in January. According to our predictions, we may return to normal next year. Let us pray together so that we will return to normal quickly,” said Jokowi while handing out presidential aid at the Bogor Palace in West Java on Dec. 18 as reported by kompas.id. 

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He went on to say that the vaccination program was targeting 70 percent of the Indonesian population – or around 182 million people — to ensure herd immunity.

As it stands, there are only enough vaccines in the country for 600,000 recipients. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) is studying additional candidate vaccines to determine whether to authorize emergency use.

According to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses will be available in 2021. As many as 3.76 billion future vaccine doses have been reserved by nearly 50 countries, including Indonesia. 

In October, regional administrations were considering issuing bylaws as a legal avenue to sanction people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil said he had instructed his staff to review the legal aspects of such a bylaw. 

“We are looking into the issue of whether people who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine will be harmful [to others] or if sanctioning them would violate their rights,” the governor said on Oct. 22 as quoted by kompas.id.

He added that the West Java administration would intensify efforts to educate communities and raise awareness about the vaccine.

The Jakarta administration issued on Monday a new bylaw on COVID-19 handling that also stipulates sanctions for people resisting the vaccination program. Article 30 of the bylaw stipulates that anyone deliberately refusing to undergo COVID-19 treatment and/or vaccination will be fined up to Rp 5 million (US$340), according to a copy of the bylaw’s final draft obtained by The Jakarta Post. (nkn)

Editor’s note: This article is part of a public campaign by the COVID-19 task force to raise people’s awareness about the pandemic.