Guard the Vaccine Distribution Process

KOMPAS/AGUS SUSANTO

Medical personnel line up to register for the second phase of Covid-19 vaccination at a Community Health Center in Setiabudi district, South Jakarta, Thursday (28/1/2021). A total of 83 health workers at the health center are scheduled to take part in the second stage of vaccination.

The monitoring of the Covid-19 vaccination process must be carried out at each distribution point. Apart from the mass vaccination, Indonesia also needs to be aware of the entry of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is more contagious.

BANDUNG, KOMPAS — Tight monitoring of the entire Covid-19 vaccination process must be carried out to maintain the quality of the vaccines. Even though the safety and quality of vaccines are guaranteed at the production stage, the quality of the vaccines can decline if they are not distributed properly.

Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) head Penny K. Lukito said distribution supervision must be comprehensive, starting from the vaccines leaving the production site, pharmaceutical installations at the provincial and regency/city levels, up to the use in the community.

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In this regard, BPOM is overseeing the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines from its production site at state pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma to injection sites in health facilities. "BPOM is present at each distribution point to guard the cold chain of the vaccines. Storage temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius for the vaccines is crucial to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccines," said Penny at the Bio Farma Office, Bandung city, West Java, Friday (29/1/2021).

"The readiness of power support instruments, such as generators, is very important. This check is carried out by food and drug supervisory centers throughout Indonesia," said Penny.

BPOM accompanies the distribution process to ensure the vaccines given to the community meet aspects of quality, safety and efficacy.

The system is controlled from the command center of the Bio Farma Office.

In distributing the vaccines, Bio Farma implements a Vaccine Distribution Management System (SMDV) that informs of the location, temperature of the vehicle, the point of stopping, and the speed of the vehicle. The system is controlled from the command center of the Bio Farma Office. "The distribution must be in accordance with good drug distribution methods with digital technology," said Director of Digital Healthcare of Bio Farma Soleh Ayubi.

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Bio Farma president director Honesti Basyir said that apart from distributing the ready-to-use vaccines, his party also processed Sinovac vaccine raw materials into finished products. Six million doses of vaccines from the raw materials have been produced and entered the stage of quality control.

Data

With regard to data collection, the General Election Commission (KPU) consolidated voter data in the 2019 general election and 2020 regional elections to be given to the Health Ministry to be used as a reference for the Covid-19 vaccination program.

"The voters data to be distributed to the Health Ministry must be in accordance with the valid data and used by the Health Ministry in Covid-19 vaccination," said Acting Head of KPU Ilham Saputra.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

A health worker prepares to inject the Covid-19 vaccine into a recipient at the courtyard of Gunung Jati Regional Hospital, Cirebon city, West Java, Friday (29/1/2021). In the initial stage, 2,300 health workers in Cirebon city will undergo vaccinations in the next two weeks.

In a number of regions, the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine is hampered. In Maluku, the vaccine distribution to a number of islands has stopped due to high waves. Several community health centers (Puskesmas) in remote areas have difficulty to store the vaccines. In order to overcome this, health workers had been asked to come to the district capitals to receive the vaccines.

Also read: Vaccination Drive Requires Accurate Data

The spokesperson for the Maluku Covid-19 Mitigating Task Force, Adonia Rerung, said the step was taken after the first phase of vaccination evaluation. Vaccine injection in Maluku began on Jan. 15.

With flexible provisions and registration, the first phase of vaccination for health workers is expected to be completed soon.

A number of big cities, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Bandung, and Surabaya, have become pilot areas for accelerating Covid-19 vaccination for health workers. With flexible provisions and registration, the first phase of vaccination for health workers is expected to be completed soon.

The secretary of the Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Health Ministry, Budi Hidayat, explained in Semarang city that 1.4 million health workers are targeted for vaccination. In the early period, vaccine injections were given to 400,000-500,000 health workers.

Yesterday, the Covid-19 Vaccination Acceleration Command Post was opened at the Semarang Port Health Office to serve 1,140 health workers in two days. Vaccine logistics were sent from the Semarang City Health Office. This post served health workers who had difficulty accessing vaccines. "This acceleration will be replicated in all regions," said Budi.

The head of the Semarang Port Health Office, Aryanti, said that the majority of health workers who registered to be vaccinated at the Covid-19 Vaccination Acceleration Command Post came from the private sector, namely clinics, hospitals, and individual practices.

New variant

The emergence of a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus triggered an explosion of new Covid-19 cases in a number of countries that had previously managed to control the pandemic. Apart from anticipating new variants from outside, Indonesia which is facing a spike in cases also needs to be aware of the emergence of new domestic variants.

ARSIP PUSKESMAS SEIRA

The Covid-19 vaccine is transported by speedboat to Seira Island, Tanimbar Islands Regency, Maluku, on Wednesday (27/1/2021).

"We must strengthen genomic surveillance because a number of neighboring countries are reporting new variant findings," said molecular genomics researcher of Aligning Bioinformatics and member of the Covid-19 Genomics UK consortium, Riza Arief Putranto.

Also read: New Hope from the Merdeka Palace

After Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam, it is the turn of the Philippines to report the new variant B.1.1.7 as a result of SARS-CoV-2 mutation in the UK. The Philippines has only done a little genomic analysis, but has focused on samples with a history of travel to foreign countries, especially those with high cases and where B.1.1.7. is suspected to be present.

Vietnam, which for 55 days had not had any new Covid-19 cases, is now experiencing an explosion of new cases with 53 new cases on Friday.

The delay in detection and isolation of this new, more contagious variant is very dangerous. Vietnam, which for 55 days had not had any new Covid-19 cases, is now experiencing an explosion of new cases with 53 new cases on Friday.

Indonesia has registered much more genomic data into GISAID, namely 252 genomes, as of Jan. 28, 2021. From these genomes, the variant that dominates the samples in Indonesia is the D614G mutation. With a very large number of Covid-19 cases, Indonesia has the opportunity to produce new variants from within the country.

KOMPAS/PRIYOMBODO

A medical officer checks her blood pressure before participating in the second phase of Covid-19 vaccination at the Jurangmangu Health Center, Pondok Aren, South Tangerang, Banten, Friday (29/1/2021). The second phase of Covid-19 vaccination for medical personnel in various regions has begun.

The director of Prevention and Control of Direct Communicable Diseases of the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the results of genome sequencing conducted by 12 laboratories in Indonesia had not found any variant B.1.1.7 originating from the UK. However, people still have to be vigilant to the new variants. (TAM/XTI/DIT/REN/FRN/IKI/NIK/SYA/AIK/TAN)

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).