COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Hampered by Supply: Health Minister

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin acknowledged there was an obstacle to the injection rate of the COVID-19 vaccines. However, he said it was not caused by the vaccination site, but rather the vaccine supply.

“[There are] many questions about the injection rate. The problem is not the place, but rather the availability of the vaccines,” said Budi in a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission IX on Monday, March 15.

Budi explained that throughout January-February 2021, Indonesia received only 10 million doses of vaccine, so it was impossible to administer 1 million doses a day. “We administer 100,000 doses per day so that there will be no empty day of injection.”

The former SOE Deputy Minister said the rate would be increased this March and April to 500,000 per day as the country would have 15 million doses. “We have now administered around 300,000 doses per day,” Budi added.

The vaccination capacity will further increase in May and June to administer 500,000 to one million per day as 25 million doses are bound to land in the country, he informed.

However, Budi went on, the injection rate would be sluggish in the second half of this year because 75 percent of the vaccines ordered by the Indonesian government would arrive in July and December. “So we need to increase our vaccination capacity,” said Budi.

Budi Gunadi said the government had administered 5.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with 4 million people vaccinated in the second phase [of the vaccination] of the target of 38 million people. “Or about 10 percent [of the target],” he added.

Read: Jokowi: Merah Putih, Nusantara Vaccines Must Follow Scientific Requirements

BUDIARTI UTAMI PUTRI