Indonesia to Begin Vaccination for COVID-19 Next Week

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination is planned to be carried out in the second week of January 2021 and will be completed for 15 months.

“We plan that within 15 months, we can complete the vaccination of 181 million Indonesians,” Budi said in a press statement at the State Palace, Jakarta on Wednesday.

However, the Minister of Health said that his party will work hard to accelerate the implementation of the vaccination. “We will try hard and we need support from all our friends to do this,” he said.

Media crews, he added, could help implement vaccination by reminding all health service facilities (fasyankes), including health centers, hospitals and clinics to register immediately to the BPJS PCare (Primary Care) application so that they can serve COVID-19 vaccinations.

“Please continue to communicate to them to register, because if they haven’t registered it will be difficult for them to be able to serve this vaccination, especially to record and handle if there are follow-up events after immunization (KIPI),” he asked.

Previously, the Government had distributed 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to 34 provinces throughout Indonesia. The delivery of the vaccine will be carried out in stages starting from January 3 and is targeted to be distributed to 34 provinces on January 7.

However, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Ma’ruf Amin Masduki Baidlowi emphasized that the COVID-19 vaccine that has been distributed to the regions will not be given to the public before the halal fatwa of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) is issued.

“I want to straighten out that there is an opinion about the vaccines that already exist in these areas (vaccination) without waiting for the fatwa (halal vaccines) from the MUI, that’s not true,” Masduki said to reporters on Tuesday. Thus, it was quoted from Kompas.

The government, he said, would never vaccinate the entire community without a fatwa from the MUI regarding the halal vaccines.

Currently, he said, MUI and the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) are doing their work on the vaccine.

BPOM, he said, conducted a series of tests on the vaccine related to the safety and benefits of the vaccine. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)