TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As of Saturday, 1,616,165 people in Indonesia were inoculated against COVID-19, or an increase of 32,584 recipients, from the earlier day.

According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force on Saturday, as many as 982,370 people out of 1,461,920 individuals have received the second dose of vaccination, up by 116,500, from the count on the previous day.

The 1.6 million people comprised healthcare workers, public service officers, elderly people, journalists, teachers, and athletes.

Indonesia has commenced the COVID-19 vaccination campaign since January 13, 2021, with the administration of China's Sinovac vaccine and priority being accorded to 1,468,764 healthcare workers. Public service officers, legal enforcers, and elderly people would next be given priority.

The country's total vaccination target is 181,554,465 people, or some 70 percent of Indonesia's population, in order to create herd immunity against the COVID-19 virus.

The government has begun the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination program on February 17, 2021, with focus on traders at the Tanah Abang wholesale market, Central Jakarta.

To expedite the vaccination campaign, the Health Ministry has issued Ministerial Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on the vaccination program to be implemented in cooperation with companies willing to bear the vaccine costs for their employees.

The government announced its first confirmed COVID-19 cases on March 2, 2020.

As of Saturday (Feb 27, 2021), the tally of COVID-19 cases had reached 1,329,074, up by 6,208, from the previous day. Indonesia recorded a total of 1,136,054 recoveries and death toll at 35,981 so far.

Read: New Zealand Begins COVID-19 vaccination, Australia Starts Monday

ANTARA