COVID-19 Vaccine Is Becoming Limited, The Government Prioritizes Elderly And Teachers

ILLUSTRATION / VACCINE INJECTION (BETWEEN DOC)

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the government will prioritize the elderly and teachers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This policy was taken due to the limited supply of vaccines in the country.

Minister of Health Budi explained that the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine for April is indeed limited. The reason is because of the vaccine embargo from producing countries that are now experiencing an increase in COVID-19 cases.

"With the limited vaccine in April, we direct it to be injected for the elderly first", said Minister of Health Budi in a press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel, Monday, April 5.

There is also a reason for the government to prioritize the elderly because based on data from the Ministry of Health, people with an age range over 60 years are more vulnerable to being exposed to COVID-19. Not only that but their death rate if exposed is also higher than other age groups.

"Of the 100 percent who died, 50 percent were elderly, if we look at those who were hospitalized, only 10 percent of those who died were for non-elderly people. But for the elderly it was almost three times", he explained.

"So it looks like our friends who are over 60 years of age are at very high risk of being hit and dying from COVID-19", added the former Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprise (BUMN).

Furthermore, if there is any remaining vaccine available, it will be given to teachers and teaching staff. Because the government has planned to give vaccines to all teachers gradually until June 2021.

This is in line with the program of the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) which plans to reopen schools and face-to-face learning starting July 2021 or the beginning of the 2021/2022 school year.

"Most of the (COVID-19 vaccination, red) is in the elderly, if there is a remaining ratio we inject it into the teacher because the plan is for all teachers to be vaccinated until June because we will gradually open schools in July", he said.

Meanwhile, regarding the number of vaccine recipients, said Budi, based on data from the Ministry of Health as of Sunday, April 4, 12.7 people had received. That number has increased compared to last week which reached 10 million per week.

"So in one week, we can add 2.5 million vaccinations per week. This puts Indonesia in the eighth position in the world", he concluded.