Jokowi Orders Local Government To Spend And Not Withhold The Stock Of COVID-19 Vaccines

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) ordered local governments to immediately accelerate the provision of vaccinations and not to withhold stock of COVID-19 vaccines.

This order was conveyed because Jokowi heard the news that a number of regions were holding stock of COVID-19 vaccines for backup.

"The President's directive for this vaccination is to be expedited and he understands that the stock is being held in the regions as a reserve for the second injection", Budi said in a press conference after a limited meeting broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube channel, Friday, July 16.

Based on this directive, the Minister of Health Budi hopes that the local government will immediately move to spend the existing vaccine stock. He also advised regions not to worry about running out of vaccine stock considering that supplies continue to grow.

"He (President Jokowi, ed) asked that it be used up immediately (vaccine stock, ed) because later there will be a new dose that will come", said the former Deputy Minister of SOEs.

Minister of Health Budi said the government currently still has 75 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine spread throughout Indonesia. Of these, 56 million doses were injected to 40 million people for the first dose.

Thus, the current stock of COVID-19 vaccines is only 19 million doses. However, Budi confirmed that by the end of August, the government would receive 30 million doses of vaccine.

Moreover, the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine does not need to be given on the appointed day. "The second injection was not on the exact day, the difference of one or two days is okay", said Budi.

"So the President's first directive is related to vaccination so that later the entire Regional Government, National Armed Force and National Police (TNI-Polri), immediately take advantage of the existing stock in the regions of 19 million doses", he added.

For information, in the last few days, the Indonesian government has received the arrival of the Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines.

In addition, on Friday, July 16 or today, the government has also received 1.408.000 doses or the equivalent of 704.000 vials of the Sinopharm brand of COVID-19 vaccine. This Chinese-produced vaccine will later be used in the Mutual Cooperation Vaccine program.