Low Herd Immunity, PAN: Government Must Accelerate Vaccination Nationally

Illustration/between

JAKARTA - Member of Commission IX of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Intan Fauzi, assesses that the government's COVID-19 vaccination program is still far from the national target. Where, the achievement of vaccination (two doses) nationally is still very low, based on data from July 29, only 9.57 percent. In fact, said Intan, the acceleration of herd immunity vaccination is part of a 'game changer' (changer of circumstances), so the government must work hard meet vaccine needs from the procurement, distribution and implementation of COVID-19 immunization with a sizable special budget allocation for vaccines in 2021 of IDR 58 trillion.

Intan explained that there are 208 million people who must be vaccinated, which is equivalent to 77 percent of the total population of Indonesia. If it is multiplied by two doses, he said, it means that 416 million doses of vaccine must be available for Indonesia.

"The government must seriously deal with obstacles in the field, and also try to meet the need for vaccines. There must be an acceleration of vaccination nationally," said Intan Fauzi to reporters, Monday, August 2.

Furthermore, Intan gave an example, for West Java with the largest population in Indonesia, it is included in the low list related to the implementation of vaccination. As of July 30, data from the Ministry of Health, West Java residents who had been vaccinated with two doses were only 7.39 percent or 2,801,545 people.

Similarly, Central Java is still 9.66 percent or 2,773,988. Not much different, East Java is also still 9.80 percent or 3,119,838. While the highest is still DKI Jakarta, which is 32.02 percent or as many as 2,688,266 people.

"Before distribution to all regions of Indonesia, vaccines are brought and stored at Bio Farma, which is located in Bandung, so of course access to distribution to areas in West Java is relatively easy to reach and close. But the fact is that the West Java vaccination target is still very low below 10 percent, This must be the government's attention," explained the legislator from the Bekasi and Depok municipalities, West Java.

Moreover, said Intan, a number of local governments will place 'mandatory vaccines' as a condition for activities in various sectors, both for business actors, employees, and visitors. The 'mandatory vaccine' requirement will also be applied as a condition for long-distance land, air and sea transportation travel, as well as public administration services.

"This means that the government must expand access to vaccines for the community without crowds. This will become an obstacle for people's mobility related to work. While they do not have access to vaccines," said Intan. "The correlation between vaccination targets is still very far. I don't believe in vaccines, but other obstacles are also the procurement, distribution and implementation of vaccinations," he continued. Intan added, from the Ministry of Health's data as of July 13 regarding the plan to procure Sinovac vaccines until the end of 2021, there were 175,504,500. However, from that amount, there are still 32,059,300 that have not been confirmed by the Indonesian government (optional). Then, Pfizer 50 million with phased procurement from mid-year to late 2021.

Then, 50 million Novavax vaccine, 108 million Covax multilateral cooperation (potential delay) in July-December. This means, clear diamond, the vaccine has the potential to not enter Indonesia. "AstraZeneca 20,000,000 for July-December 2021 and the status is also the same, potential delay and various other types of vaccines," he said. Therefore, the PAN politician reminded that there must be an acceleration of vaccination programs in 2021. Because there is no longer talk of a third dose of 'booster' even though it is only intended for health workers, but it is still running slowly.

He hopes that the Gotong Royong vaccine with Sinopharm and Cansino products can help accelerate vaccination so that the Minister of Health's Permenkes addendum to the second amendment to PerMenkes no.10/2021 only adding 20 million doses of VGR and not massively implemented.

"Not to mention there is talk of booster vaccines and vaccine mixes, and many people are starting to think they want a third dose. Do not let the vaccination program become uneven from the target population that must be vaccinated. Optimization of this vaccination road map must be clear," said Intan.