17 Million Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine Have Been Injected To Indonesian Society

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said 17 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been injected into Indonesians. This figure includes the elderly who reached 3.2 million.

Airlangga said that the government continues to accelerate the vaccination program in order to reach the target of 500 thousand injection doses per day so that the speed will be increased.

"In dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not enough just to do it by the government, but it requires the participation of all elements of society," he said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, April 21.

Airlangga said that as many as 3.2 million injections to the elderly consisted of giving the first dose of vaccine as much as 2.2 million or 10.54 percent and the second dose of 1 million or 4.86 percent of the target of 21.5 million elderly.

Meanwhile, the vaccination program for the elderly in 11 districts/cities has reached above 50 percent with Central Jakarta being the area with the highest vaccination achievement, namely 82.95 percent followed by Badung 78.21 percent, South Jakarta 76.43 percent, and Surabaya 69.86 percent.

On the other hand, the vaccination achievement for the elderly in other areas is still lower than vaccination for public officials, including Bali 26 percent, Yogyakarta 19 percent, and North Sulawesi 6 percent.

Airlangga emphasized that vaccination for the elderly must be accelerated because half of the fatal events due to COVID-19 occur in the elderly, even though the number of elderly people is only 12 percent of the total cases.

"This is because most elderly patients are prone to disease and cannot survive," he said.

Therefore, Airlangga said that the Indonesian Community Against COVID-19 (KILLCOVID19) initiated the birth of the Home Care & Home Delivery Program to support the acceleration of the vaccination target for the elderly.

Home Care services include picking up the elderly to the vaccination center, while Home Delivery is a vaccination service at the location where the elderly are located.

"May God Almighty bless us all and provide convenience in the implementation of this program," he said.