Good News For All Of Us, Jokowi Decides Free Booster Vaccinations For All Indonesians

President Jokowi (Diah Ayu Wardani/VOI)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo has decided to free the cost of the third or booster dose of COVID-19 vaccination to all Indonesians.

"I have decided that this third vaccine is free for all Indonesians," said Jokowi in his statement at the Merdeka Palace, Tuesday, January 11.

Jokowi emphasized that the free booster vaccination was carried out considering that the safety of the people was the main thing in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The implementation of the booster vaccination will start on Wednesday, January 12 tomorrow. The priority targets for vaccination are the elderly and vulnerable groups. This is because this group needs more protection from other age groups.

"Starting January 12, 2022, the government will carry out a third vaccination with priority for the elderly and vulnerable groups. This effort is important to do to increase people's immunity, given the COVID-19 that continues to mutate," said Jokowi.

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for five types or brands of vaccines for the use of third or booster doses of vaccination.

This was determined after the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) conducted an assessment of the safety, efficacy, and quality of several COVID-19 vaccines that had obtained EUA as primary vaccines to be evaluated as booster vaccines based on data from the latest supporting clinical trials.

The five vaccine brands are CoronaVac (Sinovac), Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Zifivax. The BPOM divides the classification of booster vaccines based on homolog or giving booster vaccine doses using the same brand from before, and heterologous or booster doses with different brands from the previous one.