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Businesses scramble for vaccines to use in private scheme
The Health Ministry prohibits the private inoculation scheme from using vaccines used in the government rollout.
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The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in New York, the United States, on Dec. 21, 2020. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/Pool)
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fter receiving approval from the Health Ministry, businesses are scrambling to secure vaccines from several producers as part of a private vaccination scheme, even though observers have urged the government to procure the doses itself.
The Health Ministry recently issued a ministerial regulation on the technicalities of the private vaccination scheme, dubbed the Gotong Royong Vaccination Program, which will allow business owners to buy their own vaccine supplies for their employees.
The regulation prohibits them from using the same vaccine used in the government’s inoculation program, CoronaVac from Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd, and vaccines produced by United States-based Novavax and Pfizer, as well as British firm AstraZeneca.
The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) said the business association was eyeing vaccines produced by the state-backed China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm), American firms Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, as well as Russia-produced Sputnik.
Kadin was among the parties that had proposed the private vaccination scheme to the government.
“[We will use] whichever is ready later,” Kadin deputy chairwoman Shinta Kamdani told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
She added that around 8,300 companies had registered with Kadin as of Wednesday to participate in the program, covering 6.9 million workers.
