Bio Farma: 806 Health Facilities to Serve Non-subsidized COVID-19 Vaccinations

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned pharmaceutical holding firm PT Bio Farma is preparing a non-subsidized COVID-19 vaccination program that will be held free of charge by companies for employees under mutual cooperation. The scheme will be different from the current mass inoculation set by the government.

Bio Farma noted that 806 health facilities would serve the vaccination program. Sixty five of them belong to the firm, 504 are state-owned facilities, and 237 are private ones.

“The figure is subject to change depending on our speed to clarify their readiness,” said the firm’s president director Honesti Basyir in a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Health Commission here on Monday, March 15.

Honesti targeted the health facilities to administer 75-100 shots per day so there would be 2-3 million shots per month. “We will try to accelerate it,” he added.

At present, the government eyes to vaccinate 181 million people. As of March 14, 2021, only four million people have received their first shot, and 1.4 million people have got their second shot.

To speed up the vaccinations, the vaccinations in mutual cooperation provided by companies was designed. According to Honesti, the number of vaccine doses will be given based on the needs of each company.

Two types of COVID-19 vaccines will be used in this scheme, namely Sinopharm from China and Moderna from the United States with a total of 20.2 million doses. Meanwhile, the government's mass COVID-19 vaccination program uses the Sinovac vaccine from China.

Read: Bio Farma Recalls Hardships in Securing Sinovac Vaccines

FAJAR PEBRIANTO