30,000 Doses Of COVID-19 Vaccine Arrived In Palembang, Ready For Distribution To 7 Regencies / Cities

The COVID-19 vaccine made by Sinovac, a Chinese pharmaceutical company, arrives at the vaccine warehouse of the South Sumatra Health Service in Paembang City (Aziz Munajar / Antara)

JAKARTa - As many as 30,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the vaccine storage warehouse of the South Sumatra Health Office in Palembang City on Monday morning and will then be distributed to the seven districts and cities implementing the first phase of vaccination.

The Biofarma truck carrying the vaccine made by the Sinovac pharmaceutical company from Bandung, West Java, arrived in Palembang at 6:38 a.m. WIB accompanied by security forces and a barracuda car.

Head of the Surveillance and Immunization Section of the South Sumatra Health Office, Yusri, said that the 30,000 doses of vaccine sent by Biofarma were part of the 58,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for South Sulawesi Province.

According to him, the delivery of vaccine rations to South Sumatra was carried out in two stages because the available storage capacity was limited.

"We are targeting this vaccine for three days and it will be taken by districts / cities, then order the remaining 28,000 doses, but maybe in February it will just come," he said.

He explained that the vaccines that come to Sening will be immediately distributed to Palembang and Prabumulih cities as well as Ogan Ilir, Ogan Komering Ilir (OKI), Musi Banyuasin (Muba), Penukal Abab Lematang Ilir (PALI), and Banyuasin districts.

The prioritized vaccines for health workers, according to him, will be stored in regional government warehouses until there is a direction from the central government regarding the timing of vaccination.

"If you look at the agenda, the schedule for the initial injection will be on January 14, 2021," he said.

He added that the provincial government would prepare 2,250 officers to implement the COVID-19 vaccination.

"The vaccinators will be trained first per 500 vaccinators from January 11, 2021," he said.