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Low-income patients to get COVID-19 vaccines for free, govt says
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p to 98 million low-income patients whose healthcare premiums are fully funded by the state through the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) will get the COVID-19 vaccine for free, Research and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has said.
“Between 97 and 98 million PBI [recipients of contribution assistance] policyholders of the BPJS Kesehatan will get the vaccine for free. Of course, the government and the Health Ministry will see how it is for the non-PBI participants” he said in a hearing with House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing research and technology on Tuesday.
Bambang, who also heads the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) and is the person-in-charge of the national team to accelerate the development of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, said that the government was currently calculating the total cost of the vaccine.
The government has allocated Rp 280 billion (US$18.8 million) in 2021 for the development of the locally produced Merah Putih (Red and White) vaccine.
However, Presidential Decree No. 18/2020 on the national team for the acceleration of COVID-19 vaccine development opens the possibility of other sources of funding for the program beyond the state budget.
The potential vaccine is currently being developed by a national consortium under the Research and Technology Ministry, led by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.
Other institutions that are also conducting research and development are the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the University of Indonesia (UI), the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Gadjah Mada University (UGM) and Airlangga University (Unair).
The vaccine is expected to cover at least 50 percent of Indonesia’s vaccine needs.
Apart from developing locally produced vaccine, the government has decided to also purchase vaccine in order to meet demand at home.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto has announced that the government had earmarked Rp 3.8 trillion for the down payment for purchasing COVID-19 vaccine.
“One of our top priority programs for next year is COVID-19 vaccine procurement. This year we have allocated Rp 3.7 trillion for the vaccine,” Airlangga said in an online presser on Monday.
“Next year we plan to set aside Rp 37 trillion for a multiyear program,” he added.
Besides the Merah Putih, Airlangga said the government was eyeing other potential vaccines that were currently under development. The first is the vaccine being developed by state pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma in cooperation with Sinovac Biotech of China. The second vaccine is the one being developed by United Arab Emirates’ Group 42 (G42) Healthcare.
“We plan to procure 290 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine next year and 30 million doses of the G42 vaccine this year,” Airlangga said.
He explained that the Health Ministry was set to prepare the vaccination process, which is expected to start early next year.
“With the procurement of 30 million doses of [G42] vaccine by the end of this year, we hope to start the vaccination process early next year,” he said.
