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Indonesia prepares booster shot rollout as third wave looms
Around 93 million people will have to pay for the booster shots, Airlangga said.
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Social responsibility: A participant gets vaccinated during a mass vaccination program held in Jakarta. (Kompas.com/Kristanto Purnomo)
T
he government is preparing a scheme to provide free and paid booster shots for the public as the country braces for a potentially devastating third wave.
“We will have a more detailed calculation for [this program], which is needed as a cushion if there is a third wave,” Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto, who leads the national COVID-19 task force, said in a virtual press conference on Monday.
The Golkar Party leader, who is running for president, said free booster shots would be given to 87.4 million government-subsidized (PBI) participants and 30 million non-wage recipients scheme (PBPU) participants of the national health insurance (JKN) program, as well as 4.4 million children aged 12. The state budget, according to Airlangga, would pay for the needed 137.2 million doses of vaccines.
Around 93 million people will have to pay for the booster shots themselves, he said.
“We will later finalize the pricing and other aspects of the program.”
Indonesia is widely seen as having succeeded in curbing a devastating Delta surge that killed thousands and overwhelmed hospitals across Java in mid-July.
Daily cases have fallen from about 50,000 during the height of the Delta-fueled second wave to between 1,000 and 5,000 in the past week. Experts, however, have warned that the country may still face a third wave and have called on both the authorities and the public to stay vigilant amid national efforts to reopen the economy safely.
