“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 11 and 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.

With studies suggesting that the efficacy of several COVID-19 vaccines, including Sinovac, wanes after a few months, several developed countries have begun to administer booster shots even though poorer nations have yet to inoculate most of their citizens.

Previously, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government aimed to start administering the third shot by January 2022, on the condition that the current phase of the vaccination program would be finished by then.

“The [public] can participate in a public scheme in which they can buy the shot by themselves or through the scheme of the public healthcare system for no more than US$7,” he said on Aug. 25, referring to the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan).

‘No need for booster shots’

The government has made it clear that it has not yet started a booster shot rollout for the public and is now focusing on frontliners, primarily health workers.

“If there is an incident in which a person offers a booster jab for non-health workers, please report it to us,” Health Ministry spokesman Siti Nadia Tarmizi said last week. 

Nadia added that the government had yet to decide when the paid vaccination programs — either for the first two shots or the booster shots — would begin.

“The situation is very dynamic and we’re still reviewing the policy,” she told The Jakarta Post via text message on Monday. 

Epidemiologists have suggested that the government focus on administering the two essential vaccination shots to all members of the public for now.

“The government has to prioritize the two essential vaccination shots, which are free for the public. The two shots are the government’s responsibility in handling the pandemic,” said Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia (UI).

“There may be people who would like to pay for a booster shot, but there is no need for a booster shot yet. There is no scientific justification for the notion that everyone should get the booster shot.”

At least three out of 10 Indonesians are willing to pay for a booster shot, according to a recent survey released by pollster Indikator Politik.

The survey, carried out between Sept. 17 and 21 and involving 1,200 respondents, found that 34.2 percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay for a booster shot themselves, slightly higher than the number of people willing to pay for the first two shots at 31.3 percent. The majority of respondents (53.9 percent) said booster shots should be made free for all. (ahw) 

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