Minister Of Health Budi Sets Target For Health Workers Vaccination Process To Be Completed By The End Of February

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health is targeting vaccinations for health workers to be completed by the end of February. It is recorded that the number of health workers throughout Indonesia has reached 1.5 million people.

"The vaccination process for 1.5 million of our health workers can be completed by the end of February", said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in a webinar with the theme 'COVID-19 Vaccine for Indonesia Awakens', Saturday, January 30.

So far, it is recorded that 490 thousand health workers have received vaccinations. Thus, it is targeted that in early to mid-February the number of health workers who have been vaccinated will reach 500 thousand people.

"It is hoped that by the end of this month, in 2 weeks we will be able to vaccinate 500 thousand health workers", he said.

In the vaccination process, around 3 million doses of vaccine are needed which will be injected twice to increase the immunity of each member of the health care worker.

Then, after the vaccination of health workers is complete, it will be the turn for public service officers to be injected with the vaccine. It is planned that the vaccination of public service officers will begin in early March.

"We will enter public services (such as) Indonesian National Army (TNI) and the police (Polri) into this category. So it is hoped that starting March, we will be able to administer injections for public services", he said.

Community Vaccination Starts in April

The vaccination process will continue with the target of 70 percent of Indonesians receiving the COVID-19 vaccine by April. Minister of Health Budi said that the vaccination will be carried out gradually and quickly.

"It is hoped that by the end of April or mid-April we will be able to start opening up to all Indonesians for vaccination", he said.

He explained that the vaccination process to the public would continue to be monitored to determine the effect of immunity. Because it is not yet known the duration of immunity from COVID-19 that caused by the four vaccines.

"Why does it need to be fast? Because until now we do not know how long the effect of immunity this vaccine has because no one has yet completed the third stage of clinical trials in full", he said.

As reported previously, 426 million doses of vaccine are needed in Indonesia. A calculated number of 188 million Indonesians will receive vaccinations in stages.