The Ministry Of Health Still Has IDR 1.3 Trillion In Domestic Vaccine Spending

Deputy Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono/ANTARA

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health still has a budget of Rp. 1.3 trillion allocated for the need for spending on domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines this year.

"Frankly, the budget used for the purchase of domestic vaccines is still there for 2022. We will absorb IDR 1.3 trillion," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono said, quoted by Antara, Thursday, June 9.

According to Dante, the number of COVID-19 vaccinations in Indonesia is already very high, reaching more than 400 million injections. "But we don't know when the pandemic is over," he said.

According to Dante, the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic is under control, as evidenced by epidemiological measurements of a number of very low case indicators, such as mortality, transmission, hospital occupancy and vaccination.

The slowing down of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, said Dante, was also supported by the results of a sero survey to measure the antibody levels of the Indonesian people to the risk of transmission of SAR-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, which is currently high or around 99.2 percent.

"Why do we have good numbers, because the sero survey shows that the antibodies of the Indonesian people are high," he said.

Although the pandemic situation has experienced a significant decrease in the number of cases, the government does not yet know when the public's antibodies will drop.

"The decrease in community antibodies will be accompanied by the provision of a booster (injection of the third dose of vaccine). One alternative booster is a vaccine produced by BUMN," he said.

Dante said the Ministry of Health would re-evaluate the needs of the Indonesian people for the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Furthermore, we will evaluate. After domestic sufficiency, SOEs will export (vaccines) to places where they are needed," he said.