Indonesia Prepares US$45mn to Buy 3mn Doses of Covid-19 Vaccine

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said that the Finance Ministry's Budget Agency for the State General Treasurer has budgeted Rp637.3 billion—roughly US$45.4 million in today's currency—to purchase three million doses of Covid-19 vaccine.

"For 2021, an additional budget of Rp17 trillion has been allocated," Terawan said in a work meeting with the House of Representatives' Commission IX, yesterday, Dec. 10.

The Health Minister also said that Indonesia had received 1.2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The second batch of 1.8 million doses will arrive. Medical workers will be the first group of people to receive vaccination first.

The first batch of vaccines that have arrived will be administered to health workers in Java and Bali. Medical personnel outside Java and Bali will be given the second batch as soon as the Food and Drug Administration, BPOM, issued an emergency use permit.

Minister Terawan said that nation-wide vaccination will be carried out gradually and in stages, according to the availability of vaccines. The state is targeting 107,206,544 people between the age of 18 and 59 to receive the vaccine.

In total, Indonesia estimates 246,575 million doses of vaccine—assuming each person requires two doses, and taking into account an estimated wastage rate of 15 percent. Of the target, the government plans to pay for 30 percent, while 70 percent would have to pay for the vaccines themselves.

However, DPR Commission IX urges the government to change the proportion to 70 percent subsidized and 30 percent non-subsidized.

"Taking into account the people's [economic] condition during the Covid-19 pandemic, Commission IX urged the scheme to be 70 percent vaccine programs and 30 percent independent, as a form of pro-people approach," the commission's deputy chair Anshory Siregar said during the meeting.

Read: Sri Mulyani on Covid-19 Vaccine: This Is Our Game Changer

Antara