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Indonesia’s vaccination plan deemed ‘too ambitious’
Doubts have been raised over Indonesia’s plan to complete the COVID-19 vaccination drive within a year, with health experts worrying that it may encourage a cavalier attitude toward health restrictions.
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A medical worker at a community health center in Tapos, Depok, West Java, conducts a COVID-19 vaccination simulation on Oct. 21. Depok is expected to be among the regions with the earliest access to the vaccine due to its high levels of COVID-19 transmission. JP/P.J. Leo (JP/P.J. Leo)
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oubts 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 vaccination in time, as we are now ready with adequate resources and facilities,” the ministry’s COVID-19 vaccine spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tramizi, told a Sunday press conference.
Read also: Government expects emergency vaccine approval within weeks
The same confidence was shown by newly-appointed Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who previously laid out Indonesia’s plan to secure 426 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines needed through five international channels. The former banker said that the government had negotiated firm orders of some 330 million doses and optional supplies of 330 million more from China’s Sinovac, the United States’ Novavax and Pfizer, the United Kingdom’s AstraZeneca and the COVAX facility.
The country has imported only 3 million ready-to-use doses of the Sinovac vaccine so far, with state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma starting to distribute the vaccine in 34 provinces on Sunday.
