TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Health Ministry stated that it still has a budget of IDR1.3 trillion allocated for the purchase of domestically produced COVID-19 vaccines this year.

"To be frank, the budget for the purchase of domestic vaccines is still available for 2022. We will use IDR 1.3 trillion," said Health Deputy Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono in a virtual press conference of the Phase 3 Vaccine Clinical Test Kick-Off on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

According to Dante, Indonesia's COVID-19 vaccination coverage is already high, reaching more than 400 million injections. "But we don't know when the pandemic is over."

Dante added that the current pandemic situation is under control proven by low death numbers, transmission rate, hospital occupancy rate, and vaccination rate.

It was also supported by the results of a serosurvey which is aimed at measuring the antibody of the Indonesian people to the SAR-CoV-2 transmission risk that is currently high or around 99.2 percent.

Although there is a significant decline in the number of positive cases, the government has no idea when the public's immunity will drop. Dante said the Health Ministry would evaluate the public needs for the COVID-19 vaccine. "After [ensuring that] domestic need [is fulfilled], SOEs will export vaccines to countries in need," he said.

ANTARA

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