Good News From Moeldoko: There Are A Lot Of Booster Vaccines In Stock, Those Who Want To Expire Will Be Prioritized

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JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo will free the cost of the third dose of COVID-19 vaccination or booster to all Indonesians. The good news, the entire stock booster vaccine is quite a lot.

"We have a large enough supply of vaccines. The anticipated vaccine indeed expires, but the Minister of Health has reported to the President that the numbers are clear and immediately take accelerated steps so that they do not expire", said Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko at the Presidential Staff Office Jakarta Office, Tuesday, January 11, as reported by Antara.

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.

"There are several vaccines that 'expired' on that date. So that will be prioritized", added Moeldoko.

Moeldoko said that the government had prepared several socialization strategies for administering the third dose of vaccine.

"By using all existing state power, including quotas for the police 25 percent, TNI 25 percent, BIN 25 percent, and the Ministry of Health 25 percent. Everything moves together to fulfill what is desired", added Moeldoko.

According to Moeldoko, currently, there are 284 million doses given to the public but not evenly distributed.

"There are 4 areas that need to be gassed again, namely Papua, West Papua, Aceh, and Maluku to be accelerated again", added Moeldoko.

He asked the public to respond positively to the "booster" vaccine.

"Omicron is right in front of our eyes, don't ignore it, this is the government's opportunity to give it to the community well. Let's respond well", said Moeldoko.

There are five types of vaccines that have received "Emergency Use Authorization" from BPOM to become "booster" vaccines, namely Sinovac/Coronavac, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Zificav.

Based on data from the Ministry of Health as of Tuesday, January 1 at 12.00 WIB, the number of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine that has been injected in Indonesia has reached 171,056,204 doses or 82.13 percent of the target while the second dose that has been injected is 117,333,660. or 56.34 percent.

As for those who received the third dose of vaccination, which were health workers, 1,328,659 (90.46 percent). The government targets as many as 208,265,720 people in Indonesia to receive a complete COVID-19 vaccination.