Minister Of Health Terawan Submits Budget For Advance Vaccines Of IDR 3.8 Trillion

Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto said that his party submitted a budget for down payment for ordering the COVID-19 vaccine of IDR 3.8 trillion. This vaccine was developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the vaccine alliance (Gavi) with the COVAX financing scheme.

This was conveyed by Terawan in a working meeting between Commission IX of the Indonesian Parliament, the Ministry of Health, and the Task Force for Handling COVID-19 and Economic Recovery.

"For membership as well as from Gavi, and also regarding the down payment for the budget, we will submit it to Commission IX, if I'm not mistaken, Rp. 3.8 trillion as an advance so that we can get the vaccine," said Terawan at the DPR Building, Jakarta, Thursday, August 27. .

According to Terawan, this figure was agreed upon in a joint coordination meeting between ministries. Now, his party reports the advance money for vaccine production to Commission IX of the DPR RI.

"I will report to Commission IX regarding the budget that we will propose for a down payment or guarantee for the procurement of vaccines both in 2020 and 2021 when vaccinations will be carried out while waiting for the phase three vaccine clinical trial," he said.

As is known, currently there are two types of taxis ordered by the government from abroad. First, there is a vaccine from a Chinese pharmaceutical company, Sinovac Biotech. The plan is that 20 million doses of vaccine will be imported to Indonesia by the end of 2020.

Second, the UAE G42 vaccine in collaboration with Sinopharm will provide 10 million vaccines by December 2020. Meanwhile, vaccine procurement will continue in 2021.

In the system of use, the vaccine is injected into the human body 2 times. That way, the government predicts that there will be 15 million people who will be vaccinated by December 2020.

Currently, the government has ordered 340 million doses of vaccine from China. Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Handling Task Force Wiku Adisasmito said the government's maneuver to buy up the vaccine rations to be produced from China was claimed to be an effort to protect the Indonesian people so that the transmission of COVID-19 could be suppressed.

"We must be able to provide protection to the community, in this context the vaccine, at the same time the Indonesian government through the existing consortium is also developing its own vaccine," said Wiku.

Wiku predicts the development of the red and white vaccine by the Eijkman Bio Molecular Institute and PT Biofarma, the clinical trial process to mass production will take quite a long time.

That way, when the results of domestic vaccine development are still not available for 267 million people, the government already has vaccine reserves bought from abroad.

"By having negotiated (ordering vaccines) earlier, we can ensure this access if (domestic vaccine calculations) miss," said Wiku.

"Of course, we always monitor the availability of vaccines in world developers, including encouraging the production of red and white vaccines from consortiums in Indonesia," he added.