Papua PON Health Budget Reaches Rp. 24 Billion, Costs Outside The COVID-19 Vaccine

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The government through the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu) revealed that the health budget for the implementation of the Papua National Sports Week (PON) reached Rp. 24.6 billion.

"These funds are distributed through the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) and outside of the COVID-19 vaccine procurement," said Purwanto, Director of the Budget for Human Development and Culture of the Ministry of Finance, quoted Monday, October 11.

According to him, the budget is used for health services during the PON event. Then, procurement of food hygiene and sanitation equipment for athletes, contingents, and also all related elements in it.

In addition, these resources are intended for efforts to prevent infectious diseases that have the potential to occur, not only COVID-19 but also local congenital diseases in Papua.

"This budget is used by the Ministry of Health to prevent infectious diseases that exist there, such as the procurement of medical equipment and infrastructure for malaria prevention and control. Then these funds are also used to procure tools and materials for surveillance and control of disease-carrying animal vectors," he explained.

Especially for the COVID-19 vaccination activity, it was recorded that the central government had sent 1.7 million doses and 988,000 doses had been used for the Papua region.

Meanwhile, in West Papua, it was stated that more than 777,000 doses had been distributed from Jakarta with a total of 409,000 doses used.

“For Papua, 24 percent of the people have received the first dose. Then, for West Papua it is higher with the first dose of 36 percent," he said.

For information, this health budget is part of the Papua PON funds amounting to Rp3.5 trillion.

This figure was distributed through several ministries or institutions, including the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) of Rp. 1.74 trillion, the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Rp. 1.22 trillion, the Ministry of Transportation of Rp. 481.3 billion, and TVRI of Rp. 31.7 billion.