Jokowi Adamant Covid-19 Vaccination Can be Completed Under A Year

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Thursday revealed why he is eyeing the Indonesian Covid-19 vaccination to be complete in under a year despite Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin saying otherwise before and aimed for 15 months. 

“We are equipped with roughly 30,000 vaccinators, 10,000 community health centers (Puskesmas), and 3,000 hospitals that we can mobilize,” said the President in an event dubbed Kompas100 CEO Forum. “This means that one day we can [vaccinate] nearly 1 million people. That is a huge number.”

He is optimistic that the sufficient number of supporting aspects can help complete the vaccination of 182 million people who are in the list of vaccine recipients.

He was adamant about his prediction that he said in the event “This is our strength, other countries don’t have puskesmas. This is why I say that vaccinations could actually be done under a year because we can based on my calculations.”

Previously, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that based on existing facilities available vaccinations can be done in eight months but the main problem still relies on the Covid-19 vaccine procurement that still comes gradually. 

“So if the President asks that it be done in 12 months, what we must do is how to negotiate the supply of vaccines to come earlier,” said Budi at the KPK headquarters on Friday, January 8.

There are currently only 3 million ready vials of Sinovac vaccines in Indonesia which has been distributed across the nation, while another 15 million in bulk must first be processed by Indonesian pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma before being able to be used for the Covid-19 vaccination.

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