Mimika Health Office Conveys The Proposal For Procurement Of Independent Vaccine For Freeport To Minister Of Health

Head of the Mimika Regency Health Service, Reynold Ubra, after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the Jile Yale SP3 Puskesmas, Timika (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Mimika Regency Health Office, Papua Province has submitted a proposal to independently procure the COVID-19 vaccine by PT Freeport Indonesia to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin.

"We have reported to the Minister of Health on January 22. What is clear is that the steps taken by the management of PT Freeport Indonesia to self-vaccinate all of its employees are very positive. We are still waiting for further instructions, both from the Ministry of Health and from the Papua Provincial Health Office," said the Head of the Office. Mimika Reynold Ubra's health in Timika was reported by Antara, Saturday.

He said the proposal to independently procure the Sinovac Vaccine by PT Freeport Indonesia would still be carefully considered by the government considering that the need for the vaccine is quite large.

Currently, Reynold said, the government is still prioritizing the distribution of the Sinovac Vaccine to all regions for the needs of health workers and public servants.

However, he continued, the government would also support plans for private companies and others to order the Sinovac Vaccine at their own expense to provide group immunity among their respective communities.

PT Freeport Indonesia's Vise President for Government Relations, Jonny Lingga, explained that the company continues to coordinate with the government and other related elements to be able to carry out independent COVID-19 vaccinations for employees.

Freeport, he said, wanted to order 60 thousand doses of Sinovac vaccine to vaccinate 30 thousand employees in the work area in Mimika Regency plus the families of the workers.

Mimika Deputy Regent John Rettob also positively welcomed Freeport's plan to conduct independent COVID-19 vaccination as an effort to break the chain of transmission of the corona virus in Mimika, where most of the exposed population are employees of PT Freeport and its subcontracting companies.

"If this can be done, of course it will greatly assist the government in accelerating the COVID-19 vaccination in Mimika Regency, so that the transmission of COVID-19 in areas that are red zones can be immediately cut off," said John Rettob.

He hopes that Freeport's proposal can immediately get the blessing of the Ministry of Health and the national level COVID-19 Task Force.

"We continue to discuss this, how to speed up COVID-19 vaccination in Mimika Regency. If all Freeport employees and their families receive the vaccine, it will certainly have a very big effect on Mimika Regency," he said.

Currently, there are around 15,000 permanent employees of Freeport and employees of its subcontractors who live in the Mimika highlands, namely in Tembagapura and its surroundings.

Meanwhile, employees who live in the lowlands, namely in Kuala Kencana, Portsite Amamapare Port, Mile 39, including the employees' families who live in Timika City are estimated to reach 24 thousand people.

With such a large number of lives, the effort to carry out independent vaccination in the PT Freeport environment really helps the government to provide maximum protection not only for the Freeport community, but also for the Mimika community in general from the threat of COVID-19.

Mimika is targeting 80 percent of the total population of around 300,000 people to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.