Minister Of Health Budi Gunadi: January, COVID-19 Vaccines Will Be Distributed Throughout Provinces

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed soon in early January 2021. This distribution will be distributed evenly to all provinces in Indonesia so that the vaccination program can be implemented immediately.

"We hope that before the Indonesian people return to work in January, God willing, we can distribute the vaccine to 34 provinces so that we can start the vaccination program for our health workers," Budi said in his press conference after the arrival of 1.8 million doses of Sinovac vaccine at the airport. Soekarno-Hatta, Tangerang broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Thursday, December 31.

He said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had assigned his ranks of ministers to work hard to ensure that vaccinations could be carried out immediately and thoroughly. In fact, Budi said, this work no longer looks at holidays.

"On Tuesday we conveyed the plan to the public, last Wednesday Bio Farma signed an order agreement for 50 million vaccines from Astrazeneca and Novavax, both from England and America, and today we are witnessing the arrival of the second batch of Sinovac vaccines to Indonesia. "he said.

Even so, he still asked the public to adhere to health protocols to prevent transmission of the virus. This is because the vaccine, which is the main strategy in handling COVID-19, still needs a long preparation, even for the next year.

"It took more than 12 months for us to complete this vaccination program. For that, friends, don't forget to always adhere to health protocols," he said.

It is known that Indonesia returned to the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine on Thursday, December 31. The second stage of this 1.8 million doses of vaccine arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport, Tangerang, Banten.

Based on the Youtube account of the Presidential Secretariat, it was observed that the plane carrying the vaccine from the Chinese company had landed at Soetta Airport.

There were several white boxes bearing the inscription of environmental containers that had been unloaded from the Garuda Indonesia plane. Furthermore, the newly arrived vaccines are transported using a transport car to the airport area and will be sent to PT Bio Farma, Bandung to be stored according to World Health Organization (WHO) standard protocols.