COVID-19 – Over 500,000 Indonesian health workers already vaccinated

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – As many as 539,532 health workers in Indonesia as of Monday (Feb. 1) have received the first vaccine jab against the new coronavirus, out of the total target of 1,531,072 people.

Of the target, 1,501,491 health workers have been reregistered, according to a statement of the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

Spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination Siti Nadia Tarmidzi said the government is optimistic that it could complete the vaccination program for all health workers in the country by the end of February this year.

She added that the second phase of the national COVID-19 vaccination program will target around 17.4 million public service workers.

“An additional of ten million doses of vaccine that we received today (Feb. 2) are planned to be used for the second phase of vaccination that targets public service workers, especially those who are working in areas exposed to COVID-19,” Nadia said.

A total of 10 million doses and 1 million overfills of Chinese Sinovac vaccine raw materials arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten province’s city of Tangerang on Tuesday morning.

With that batch, the total number of vaccine currently available in Indonesia is 28 million doses, both in the ready-to-use form and raw materials. The raw materials will be further processed by state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma.

Nadia pointed out that the national mass vaccination program began with a target of more than 1.5 million health workers, followed by 17.4 public service workers, so that it was expected to cover 181.5 million of Indonesian people. This step aims to establish herd immunity.

After the herd immunity is formed, those who cannot receive the COVID-19 vaccine due to certain health conditions can avoid transmission of the coronavirus.

“Vaccination is very important and has benefits. Based on a report from the National Committee (on handling COVID-19), the adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is still minor and nothing serious,” said Nadia.

Reporting by Indonesia Window