Ministry Of Health Ensures That Mutual Cooperation Vaccination Program Will Not Interrupt The One Which Is Run By The Government

Illustration / injection of the COVID-19 vaccine (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination from the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi ensures that the mutual cooperation vaccination program will not affect the previous vaccination program run by the government.

The mutual cooperation vaccine is a vaccine whose implementation is imposed on companies and is intended for employees and female employees, as well as their families.

"This mutual aid vaccination will not interfere with the vaccination program carried out by the government and all citizens are certainly entitled to get vaccines that are provided free of charge to the government", Nadia said in a press conference broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Friday, February 26.

The certainty that this program will not interfere with the vaccinations that were announced earlier because the types of vaccines given will not be the same.

"We emphasize that the type of COVID-19 vaccine that will be used by mutual aid vaccine is different from the vaccine that will be used in the government's vaccination program", he explained.

"I repeat once again that the mutual cooperation type will not use the Sinovac, Astrazeneca, Novavax, and Pfizer vaccines", added Nadia.

Even though they will not use this type of vaccine, however, the Ministry of Health ensures that all types that will be given in the mutual cooperation vaccination program remain safe. Because, just like vaccines from government programs, the types of vaccines used must obtain an emergency use authorization issued by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).

All recipients of the mutual cooperation vaccine will not be charged any fees or there is no need for payment and are given free of charge by the company conducting the mutual cooperation vaccination.

"And the mutual assistance vaccination is the domain of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) and Bio Farma", he said.

As previously reported, the government has officially opened the COVID-19 vaccination program independently, which is charged to the private sector or through independent channels. This is stated in the Minister of Health Regulation Number 10 of 2021 concerning the Implementation of Vaccinations in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Through this regulation, the independent vaccination program is called mutual vaccination. Based on Article 3 Paragraph 5 of this Regulation of the Minister of Health (Permenkes), it is stated that vaccination is given to employees/female employees, families, and other individuals free of charge.

This means that companies implementing this program must provide the COVID-19 vaccine for free to employees and their families.

Furthermore, Article 6 of the Minister of Health Regulation 10/2021 states that every company is required to report data on the target recipients of vaccination independently or together to the Minister of Health. The data reported were the number of vaccination participants, names, addresses, and identification numbers.

Article 22 also states that this vaccination cannot be carried out in government-owned health care facilities. Companies or employers must cooperate with private or private health facilities which are then required to coordinate with the local health office.

There is also a vaccine price limit for self-vaccination, which will be set by the Minister of Health.

"The maximum tariff for mutual cooperation vaccination services is determined by the minister. The cost of mutual vaccination services carried out by public/private health service facilities must not exceed the maximum rates set by the minister", Article 23 reads.