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Jakarta Post

Elderly vaccination off to shaky start

Confusion over registration mars initial rollout of inoculation of elderly in provincial capitals

Ardila Syakriah (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, February 26, 2021

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Elderly vaccination off to shaky start

T

he government has rolled out its COVID-19 vaccination drive for elderly people across the country, one of the groups deemed vulnerable to the coronavirus. However, the process has been marred by long queues due to confusion and technical limitations of the online registration system.

On Feb. 15, the Health Ministry announced the health authorities would roll out a vaccination drive for people aged 60 years and above. For the first phase of the drive, they would focus on inoculating the elderly in provincial capitals across the country.

Then on Feb. 19, authorities distributed the link to online registration for the program via WhatsApp .

Shortly after, however, the Health Ministry said the links were void and the official ones would be available on the national COVID-19 task force’s website. The ministry added that it would still process registrations done through the previous link.

The new link redirects registrants to the same Google Forms accessed through the previous link. The forms asked registrants for their personal data, but there were no questions about comorbidities.

The provincial health agency is assigned to process the data as well as provide an appointment and a vaccination center for registrants.

Read also: Has Indonesia followed science in COVID-19 response? Perhaps not

A 37-year-old lawyer in Jakarta, who has requested anonymity for family reasons, registered her 72-year-old mother on Friday evening through the links provided by the task force.

She deemed the vaccine “very important” for her mother as the lawyer still had to work from her office several days a week. Some of her colleagues recently tested positive for COVID-19, thus putting her at risk of contracting the virus.

But she did not receive automated feedback from the online registration system. After days of not hearing back from the system, she decided to take her mother to the hospital for the jab on Tuesday.

Upon arriving at the hospital, she met several elderly people waiting to be vaccinated. But they were told that the hospital had used up all 200 doses disbursed from the central government.

She also found that some recipients had registered for the vaccination manually upon arriving at the facility.

“I’m worried that people [with connections to inside people] can get the jab first,” the lawyer told The Jakarta Post.

Her mother eventually received the vaccination from a nearby community health center (Puskesmas) on Thursday, after being informed by the center’s officials. The lawyer and her mother decided to go early to avoid queues and the process went smoothly, she said.

Indonesia is targeting to inoculate some 21 million elderly people aged 60 and above and 17 million essential workers in the second phase of vaccination, which started on Feb. 17. The two groups are prioritized as they account for almost half of COVID-19 fatalities in the country.

However, due to the limited vaccine supplies, the Health Ministry could only distribute 7 million doses for elderly people in the provincial capitals. Around 70 percent of the doses were disbursed to cities on Java and Bali.

Jakarta has received 60,000 vaccine doses so far, enough to inoculate 30,000 people twice. According to the latest census, more than 1 million elderly people reside in the capital city.

The Jakarta Health Agency had appointed 72 vaccination posts in all districts as of Monday. It is focusing on elderly people who hold a Jakarta identity card.

Agency spokesperson Irma Yunita said on Wednesday recipients should register online first and wait to be notified by the healthcare facility, before going to receive the jab at their allotted time.

She urged against registering manually: “It will create crowds and long queues, increasing the risk [of COVID-19 transmission].”

Authorities urged family members, as well as community unit (RT) and neighborhood unit (RW) heads to help the elderly to fill out the forms.

Elderly people sit distanced from one another as they wait their turn for pre-COVID-19 vaccination screening at a community health center in Palmerah, West Jakarta, on Thursday. The government aims to inoculate some 21 million people aged 60 and above and 17 million public service and essential workers in the second phase of vaccination, which started on Feb. 17.
Elderly people sit distanced from one another as they wait their turn for pre-COVID-19 vaccination screening at a community health center in Palmerah, West Jakarta, on Thursday. The government aims to inoculate some 21 million people aged 60 and above and 17 million public service and essential workers in the second phase of vaccination, which started on Feb. 17. (JP/Ardila Syakriah)

But elderly people have still ended up waiting for hours at vaccination centers before getting their jab, despite having registered online and arrived at the designated time.

Hemy, 68, went to a Puskesmas in Palmerah, West Jakarta at 10 a.m. on Thursday. After spending an hour for pre-vaccination health screening, she still had to wait to finally be inoculated.

The Palmerah Puskesmas uses its fourth floor for the screening process. The officials open all windows and set the chairs distanced from one another. However, recipients have to go to the second floor using an elevator, which can take four people at a time, to be administered the vaccine.

Hemy, who has to use a walking cane, said she decided to wait downstairs after failing to secure a seat on the fourth floor. Officers at the puskersmas told people waiting that there had been issues with the internet connection used for collecting recipients’ data during the screening process.

Local media outlets have been reporting a long line of around 500 elderly people registering for vaccination at Kembangan Regional General Hospital in Jakarta on Sunday. According to reports, they had to sign up manually amid confusion surrounding online registration.

Read also: 'Disaster': Indonesia's vaccine campaign lags rampaging pandemic

Long lines were not only seen in Jakarta. Retno, a 64-year-old resident of East Java’s Surabaya, said her brother decided to return home after finding a long queue of elderly people waiting for vaccination on Tuesday. Surabaya is one of the cities prioritized for the elderly vaccination drive.

Retno and her two siblings registered themselves for the drive with their RT head via WhatsApp on Feb. 18. But only her younger brother received a jab appointment on Monday.

Her brother returned to receive the jab on Thursday. Retno was told that she would be included in the next period, but health authorities did not mention clearly when she would receive the jab.

Observers have been urging the private sector to provide more spaces for vaccinations to accelerate the vaccination drive for prioritized groups. The calls come amid a plan for privately run vaccination schemes that would be aimed at the staff of private companies.

National COVID-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said health authorities were working to solve the issues with the elderly vaccination drive, including the long queues at vaccination centers.

“The Health Ministry and healthcare facilities will continuously improve the queuing system, so the elderly can get vaccination appointments more easily. The facilities can also adjust to these schedules,” Wiku said during a virtual press briefing on Thursday.

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