Receiving Additional Sinovac-AstraZeneca, Minister Of Health, Budi, Asked Regions To Promote Vaccination Again

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin vaccinated in phase two (Photo: Screenshot)

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has asked the local government to intensify the second phase of the vaccination program for the elderly and public service workers.

Previously, Budi admitted that the government had slightly put a brake on the number of vaccination targets because vaccine stocks were running low. However, in the near future Indonesia will receive vaccines again.

"My message is to all ranks of regional heads, let's give it another injection. Yesterday we were a little less because the supply was lacking. But now the supply for May will be quite a lot," Budi said in a YouTube broadcast of the Presidential Secretariat, Monday, April 26.

Budi explained, tonight Indonesia will have the arrival of 3.8 million AstraZeneca brand vaccines. These vaccine rations come from negotiations on the multilateral cooperation of the GAVI COVAX Facility.

Then, in the next month, Indonesia again received two shipments of Sinovac vaccine from China, each with 3.8 million doses.

"Then the results of the discussion between Mr President (Joko Widodo) and Prime Minister Xi Jinping were similar. There are additional Sinovac vaccines that will enter between 10 million and 15 million for April and May," said Budi.

"For this reason, we will immediately return the injection phase to the previous one, so that hopefully on August 17 we can give gifts for the anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia, the number of people who have been vaccinated is sufficient, so that we can control this pandemic," he concluded.

It is known that currently there are 11,733,923 people who have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination and 6,822,304 vaccines for the second dose. Meanwhile, the total target of vaccination stages 1 and 2 which are currently still running reaches 40,349,051 people.

The next stage of vaccination will be carried out for 63.9 million vulnerable people or people living in areas with high risk of infection. Then, the other communities as many as 77.7 million people. This program will be carried out from April 2021 to March 2022.