The Jakarta Post
Doubts have been raised over Indonesia’s plan to complete the COVID-19 vaccination drive within a little over a year, with health experts not only unconvinced about its feasibility but also worrying that it may encourage a cavalier attitude toward health restrictions. In a bid to escape the health and economic crisis through herd immunity, the government will spare only 15 months from mid-January 2021 to March 2022 to inoculate 181.5 million of the country’s 269 million citizens -- or roughly 70 percent of the population. The plan was recently announced by the Health Ministry, which elaborated that the first phase would take place from January to April 2021 and would prioritize 1.3 million health workers and 17.4 million public workers in all 34 provinces, followed by the general public in the targeted age group. “We are quite optimistic about completing the va...