The Government Has Not Determined Time For Covid-19 Vaccination, Terawan: The Item Is Not Available

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Terawan Agus Putranto said that the government has not confirmed the timing of the COVID-19 vaccine. This is because until now the vaccines from overseas pharmaceutical companies have not all arrived in the country.

"We pray that the sooner the better, but it must also be safe. But if the time is right, the goods are not available. I think if there is something, the response will be different," said Terawan in a joint working meeting with Commission IX DPR at the DPR building, Senayan, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, November 17th.

Terawan said that currently the vaccine that is already in Indonesia is Sinovac, which is currently undergoing clinical trials.

"The others have not arrived, there are not yet. If there were, yes, it might be different," he explained.

Therefore, Terawan cannot confirm when the vaccination will be carried out. This at the same time answered the questions of the members of Commission IX, who had been questioning him from the start about the timing of the vaccine.

"Because there is no (vaccine) yet, I can't say anything. It's not there yet. Because it's all still a plan. Confused, transparency, if I bring up, 'Where's the item?'," Said former Head of RSPAD Gatot Subroto. this.

Previously, at the meeting, Terawan explained that in the effort to provide vaccines, 23 thousand health workers had been trained to inject the COVID-19 vaccine against hundreds of millions of Indonesian citizens.

"Currently trained vaccinators through the ToT (Trainee of Trainer) program are 23,145 health workers from health centers with a ratio of 1:20 and network expansion by adding service sessions can increase the ratio to 1:40," he said.

Terawan said the number of people targeted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine reached 67 percent of the 160 million population in Indonesia.

The criteria for vaccine recipients are aged 16 to 59 years, healthy without comorbid diseases, pregnant women, and those already infected with COVID-19 according to the recommendation of the Indonesia Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI).

Meanwhile, the implementation is carried out with two schemes, namely program vaccines and independent vaccines.

The vaccine program will later be given to health workers, public servants such as airport, port, fire fighters to law enforcement officials such as the Indonesian National Police, and BPJS participants.

"This vaccine program targets 32,185,276 people who need it with 73,664,035 doses," said Terawan.

As for the independent vaccine, the target is 75 million people with a total of 172 million doses and will be given to the public and other economic actors.