Highlight The Case Of Illegal Vaccines In Medan, Dpr: Evidence Of Weak Ministry Of Health Surveillance

Member of Commission IX of the House of Representatives Saleh Partaonan Daulay (Nailin In Saroh/VOI)

JAKARTA - Member of Commission IX of the House of Representatives Saleh Partaonan Daulay highlighted the case of illegal vaccination that occurred in Medan, North Sumatra (North Sumatra). According to him, the government should in this case the Ministry of Health and task force handling COVID-19 conduct a direct check of the vaccine that has been distributed.

According to Saleh, there should be supervision of every vaccine that has been distributed both to the region and agencies. This surveillance is important to know whether the vaccine has been given to the community correctly or not. Not just at the stage of submission to the agency and stop there.

"This case shows a very weak level of supervision of the Ministry of Health (Kemkes) and the Task Force on Handling COVID-19," he said, in Jakarta, Sunday, May 23.

Saleh suspected that the government was not conducting surveillance. But just entrust it to the regions or agencies that will vaccinate COVID-19.

"Don't just believe it will be done like that. There still has to be surveillance," he said.

According to Saleh, this incident should be immediately evaluated and tightened supervision. Because, the case happened to be caught in Medan. He warned that similar incidents should not occur in other areas.

"Supervision of this national vaccination program is very important to be supervised. Because the availability of vaccine stocks is still very limited. Therefore, vaccine recipients must be a target that is really prioritized and done correctly in accordance with the existing rules," he said.

Cases of alleged bribery of illegal sale of COVID-19 vaccines in North Sumatra (North Sumatra) have taken place 15 times in the period April-May 2021. Police revealed that during the operation, two doctors and a state civil servant (ASN) at the local Health Office pocketed Rp238 of money allegedly from bribes.

In this case, North Sumatra Police has established four suspects, among others SW as a real estate agent, IW doctor in Tanjung Gusta Medan, KS doctor in Dinkes Sumut, and SH as ASN in Dinkes Sumut.