Good News From Sri Mulyani, There Is Sufficient Stock Of COVID-19 Vaccine For The Whole World, Bad News: Distribution Constraints Cause Inequality

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that in fact, the percentage of COVID-19 vaccinations worldwide could be better than the current level. According to him, vaccine production capabilities from producing countries can already meet the needs of half of the global population.

"Actually, vaccine production could be sufficient for 50 percent of the world's population," said the Minister of Finance in a webinar last weekend, November 26.

However, this output capacity cannot immediately be realized as expected due to a number of obstacles in the field.

"But the uneven distribution process is an obstacle to being able to achieve this, especially in developing or even poor countries where vaccination levels are still single digits," she said.

The Minister of Finance added that this inequality is also reflected in the percentage of vaccinations in developed countries which have almost reached the level of communal immunity or herd immunity.

"In developed countries, many vaccinations are already 60 percent or even 70 percent," she added.

For information, the country's treasurer revealed that until now the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally has reached 7.78 billion doses in 186 countries with an average rate of 42.6 percent.

Meanwhile, in Indonesia itself, there are almost the same obstacles, namely obstacles in the distribution process to the community. In fact, the Minister of Finance assessed that reaching the 70 percent level by the end of 2021 was quite challenging.

"Our daily vaccinations continue to increase, which currently reaches 1.28 million doses per day, which is certainly below our expectation to pursue 2 million doses per day to achieve the target of 70 percent by the end of the year," she said.

In terms of vaccine spending, until October 2021 the government is said to have issued a budget of IDR 22.8 trillion for the procurement of IDR 22.8 trillion.