Jokowi Is Still Waiting For The BPOM's Decision Before Starting The COVID-19 Vaccination

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi Twitter)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) said the government is still waiting for an emergency use authorization (UEA) from the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) before starting the vaccination program. This permit is likely to be issued this week or at least next week.

"We are still waiting for the results of the test. Later, an emergency permit for use will be issued from BPOM. We hope that this week or next week it will come out," said Jokowi in an event broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube account, Wednesday, January 6.

After this permit is issued, about two or three days after that the vaccination program will be carried out and he is ready to be the first person to be injected with the Sinovac vaccine. The reason is, he wants people to believe that this vaccine is safe.

"This was my first injection. I want to show that the vaccine is safe because it has gone through clinical trials. Not only once or twice, it has been tested," he said.

Jokowi also targets that the COVID-19 vaccine can be completed within a year. The hope is that after this vaccine is given, Indonesia will be able to recover from the pandemic soon.

"The hope is that after being vaccinated, things will start to return to normal. If it is already about 70 percent of Indonesia's population is injected with the vaccine," he said.

As previously reported, the Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, confirmed that he would work hard to get a national vaccination program to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a year.

Although initially mentioned that the vaccination program would be completed in 15 months, the Ministry of Health was still trying to complete it within a year as requested by President Joko Widodo.

"We plan that within 15 months we will be able to complete the vaccination of 181 million Indonesians. However, earlier, Mr. President gave a challenge whether it could be accelerated so that it could be completed within 12 months. We will try hard and we need support to do this. "Budi said in a press conference broadcast on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat after a closed meeting, Wednesday, January 6.

Budi explained that currently 1.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine from China have been distributed to 34 provinces in Indonesia. This delivery, he said, had been carried out since last Sunday, January 3 and is targeted to be completed by January 7 at the latest.

Later, after the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) issues an emergency use authorization (UEA), vaccinations can be given.

To make the vaccination program a success, Minister of Health Budi reminded health facilities that will carry out vaccinations such as health centers, hospitals and clinics to immediately register with the PCare application belonging to BPJS Kesehatan. This needs to be done so that these health facilities can access data on vaccine recipients.

"Because if they haven't registered it will be difficult for them to be able to serve vaccinations, especially to record and handle if there are follow-up events after immunization (AEFI)," he said.

Not only that, he also appealed to puskesmas that still lacked refrigerators to immediately report it to related parties including the local health office so that this problem was resolved.

"Please contact the Ministry of Health, the closest apparatus. If necessary (reports, red) can be sent to Twitter with my Instagram or my Facebook so we can handle it quickly," he said.