Good News! 1.4 Million AstraZeneca Vaccines Arrive In Indonesia

Illustration-(Photo: DOK ANTARA)

JAKARTA - A total of 1.4 million AstraZeneca vaccines have arrived in the country to make the COVID-19 vaccination program a success. The arrival of the vaccine is divided into two stages, namely, stage 198 and stage 199.

The two stages of the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine came from a donation from the Dutch government of 228.800 doses, while the remaining 1.175.800 doses came from the Japanese government.

"The total vaccine that arrived on Tuesday was 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine," said Director General of Information and Public Communication (IKP) of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics Usman Kansong in his written statement, Antara, Wednesday, January 19.

Indonesia expresses its appreciation to COVAX, the Government of the Netherlands, and the Government of Japan who continues to support Indonesia in dealing with COVID-19, especially by providing support to ensure the availability of vaccine stocks.

Since the pandemic, the Dutch government has provided 6.047.400 doses of vaccine, while the Japanese government has also provided a total of 6.870.000 million vaccines to Indonesia for better handling of COVID-19.

Of course, this collaboration shows that governments between countries in the world have good cooperation in handling COVID-19 and can accelerate the recovery of global conditions.

Usman said Indonesia as the host of the 2022 G20, targets to pursue the target of at least 70 percent of the population in Indonesia having been vaccinated this year.

Therefore, it is very important for Indonesia to ensure the availability of vaccines, especially at this time the need for COVID-19 vaccines is increasing with the presence of two additional programs, namely "vaccine boosters" and COVID-19 vaccinations for children.

"Despite increasing demand, the government is committed to ensuring the availability of vaccines for the community," he said.

The government also continues to pursue diplomacy, both bilaterally and multilaterally, to meet the needs of COVID-19 vaccinations. This is because the population of Indonesia is quite large and makes the need for COVID-19 vaccines even more.

"Therefore, from the start, the Indonesian government made diplomatic efforts to quickly and smoothly get access to vaccines," said Usman.

Regarding the spread of the Omicron variant, Usman believes that it is necessary to optimize cooperation with local governments, health service facilities, health human resources, and related stakeholders to be one of the keys to preventing and controlling these mutation variants.

On the other hand, Usman also ensured that the government will continue to work hard so that Indonesia will quickly recover and recover from COVID-19, including the new variant of Omicron.

The threat of Omicron variants requires a rapid response so that continuous transmission can be prevented immediately.

"With optimal cooperation, the Government is optimistic that it will soon get out of the COVID-19 crisis," he concluded.