Govt to Inoculate 30,000 Tourism Entrepreneurs in Batam, Bintan

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry is targeting to vaccinate 30,000 tourism entrepreneurs against COVID-19 in Batam and Bintan Islands, Riau Islands province.

Prior to the opening of the travel corridor with Singapore in April this year, all of them should be inoculated, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said in Batam on Saturday.

"As the first step towards the recovery of the tourism sector in Batam and Bintan, we have targeted to vaccinate some 3,500 of them (entrepreneurs) today," he informed.

A successful vaccination program would strengthen both domestic and foreign travelers' trust in the safety and comfortability of the two islands' tourism industry, he remarked.

Sandiaga Uno urged those who have received the COVID-19 jabs to continue to abide by the government's health protocols to prevent any potential coronavirus transmission.

At Saturday’s vaccine event, a tourism entrepreneur named Mariani thanked the government for arranging a COVID-19 vaccination program for her and her colleagues.

Mariani said she did not have any complaint after receiving the first shot.

Meanwhile, head of Batam city's health office, Didi Kusmarjadi, said he has set a target of inoculating 1,900 tourism players in the city by March 22 this year.

At least 50 medical workers have been roped in to vaccinate tourism entrepreneurs in the city, which shares a sea border with Singapore, he informed.

Indonesia has been striving to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since the government officially announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

The government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program this year to arrest the spread of infections.

According to the Health Ministry, it would take 15 months to vaccinate around 181.5 million people under the national program.

Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate crossed one million cases on January 26, 2021.

To attain herd immunity and free the nation from the clutches of the pandemic, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has stressed on the need for successfully administering the COVID-19 vaccine to the targeted population.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease has dragged Indonesia into serious public health and economic crises.

Tourism has been among the severely-affected economic sectors in the country.

Read: Batam, Bintan to Soon Be Opened for Foreign Tourists

ANTARA