12.7 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccines Administered: Health Minister

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin on Monday announced that Indonesia’s COVID-19 mitigation efforts had seen 12.7 million vaccinations carried out nationwide up till April 5. He said the figures had placed Indonesia in the eight position on the global list of countries with vaccine rollouts.   

“If we exclude the countries that produce their own vaccines, which makes the issue of supplies be non-existent, we rank fourth globally,” said Budi Gunadi at the Presidential Office in Central Jakarta today.

He believed this had shown that Indonesia was a country that acted swiftly in protecting its citizens despite the difficulties in obtaining vaccines, which was mainly caused by the series of third waves of active coronavirus cases in countries in Europe, South America, and Asia. 

The minister said this surge in cases had pushed vaccine-producing countries to increase its supplies for countries devastated by the third wave of COVID-19. This situation affected vaccine supplies on the global scale, which included Indonesia’s ability to secure more vaccines. 

However, the Health Minister reassured that the Indonesian government was currently negotiating with vaccine-producing countries and companies to secure supplies back to its normal rate in May. He said the government would continue the vaccination program at a rate that had been implemented since January this year. 

Read: Vaccination Campaigns Key to Revival of Bali's Tourism Industry

EGI ADYATAMA