Inequality In The Number Of Recipients Of COVID-19 Vaccines In The World, Jokowi: Even Though There Are More Than 100 Million Doses That Are Unused And Expired

Photo: BPMI Setpres

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the gap in access to COVID-19 vaccines in the world is still wide. In fact, around the world, there are billions of doses of vaccines that have been injected.

"Currently more than 7.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been injected worldwide but the gap in access to vaccines is still wide", he said as quoted from the official Twitter account @jokowi on Saturday, November 27.

Not only that, but Jokowi also revealed that the number of vaccine recipients in poor countries is far less than in rich countries. This difference is quite noticeable because, in rich countries, almost part of the population has received the injection even though it was only the first dose.

"As many as 64.99 percent of the rich population have received at least one dose of vaccine, while in poor countries only 6.48 percent", said Jokowi.

Seeing this condition, Jokowi then invited the leaders of Asian and European countries to work together, including distributing vaccine doses or dose-sharing. This needs to be done to achieve the WHO vaccination target.

Because, if the conditions he mentions continue to occur, it will result in the WHO's targets being difficult to achieve. Not only that, but Jokowi also warned that hundreds of millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine could be wasted due to expiration.

"The WHO vaccination target is difficult to achieve because it is estimated that almost 80 countries will not reach the vaccination target of 40 percent of the population by the end of 2021. At the same time, more than 100 million doses of vaccine in G7 countries are unused and expired", he explained.

"That's why, at the virtual 13th Asia-Europe Meeting Summit, yesterday, I invited the leaders of Asian and European countries to work together", added Jokowi.

In addition to dose-sharing, he also invited all leaders of Asian and European countries to increase the production and recipients of COVID-19 vaccines.

"Dose-sharing must be encouraged, vaccine production increased, and absorption capacity of vaccine recipient countries increased", he concluded.