Fire, Langka Meningitis Vaccine, Thousands Of Umrah Pilgrims Are Threatened With Failure To Leave

JAKARTA - Chairman of the Central Board of Executive Board of the Muslim Association of Hajj and Umrah Organizers of the Republic of Indonesia (DPP AMPHURI), Firman M Nur emphasized that the shortage of meningitis and International Certificate of Vaccination (ICV) vaccines or better known as yellow books, you could say this is an extraordinary event. This will be fatal if the government continues to impose regulations, but it cannot provide vaccines and yellow books. Even some Port Health Offices (KKP) in many have temporarily closed the meningitis vaccine service.

This is a warning for our government. This vaccine crisis resulted in the failure of the departure of Umrah pilgrims," said Firman in Jakarta, Friday, September 23.

Firman gave an example, the failure to leave the Umrah congregation due to the hampered number of meningitis vaccines and yellow books as happened at Juanda-Surabaya departure airport some time ago. "That's the case before the rare meningitis vaccine, especially now that meningitis vaccines are not available, the government is unable to provide vaccines that are needed by people who want to worship," he said.

Even due to the vaccine crisis and yellow books, a number of Port Health Offices (KKP) temporarily closed the meningitis vaccination service. One of them was conveyed by the KKP Class I Soekarno-Hatta which announced a temporary closure until an undetermined time limit. The same thing was done by the Pekanbaru KKP Class II.

Firman emphasized that the Saudi Arabian government itself in its implementation in the field had relaxed the application of this rule, in fact there were no more examinations related to the meningitis vaccine. Because it is no longer a concern for the Saudi government when receiving Umrah pilgrims.

This is something that is forced, even though in Saudi it is no longer the main concern. The government should provide discretion and relaxation or leeway for Umrah pilgrims who have not been vaccinated against meningitis because of the lack of meningitis vaccines," said Firman.

Firman said, as information submitted by the Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia (Consul General) in Jeddah Eko Hartono said, Saudi Arabia in the field no longer examines pilgrims regarding the meningitis vaccine. This means, said Firman, that the Saudi authority regarding this meningitis vaccine is no longer the main focus when pilgrims arrive at the arrival airport.

Indeed, it was previously reported that the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) had made efforts to relocate the distribution of the availability of meningitis vaccines in accordance with the distribution of the population of Umrah pilgrims per province. However, these efforts still hinder the implementation of Umrah pilgrimages. In fact, the availability of this meningitis vaccine will only be available in October 2022. Meanwhile, the government also applies vaccinations at least 14 days before departure.

"There must be discretion and relaxation of this regulation, if the government continues to force it, as a result, the pilgrims will be harmed," he said.

The same thing was revealed by the Head of the AMPHURI Health Division, Dr. Endy Astiwara, who said that this vaccine crisis had a very wide impact, because hotels and transportation had been booked, plane tickets had been booked, prospective pilgrims had also applied for leave to their respective agencies, and prospective pilgrims from students and students had applied for permission not to attend school/graduate.

"However, all of this ran aground, only because the government was unable to carry out its task to provide vaccines according to the needs of the Indonesian people who would Umrah," he said.

"The government must be responsible for the scarcity of this meningitis vaccine, because it can result in several hundred thousand Umrah pilgrims who will fail to depart as a result, and for the time being, immediately exercise discretion or relaxation regarding the regulation on the obligation of the meningitis vaccine for Umrah pilgrims during this vaccine crisis," he added.