Vaccination Priority for Vulnerable Groups

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

The vaccinator prepares the Sinopharm vaccine which is used for Covid-19 vaccination at the gotong royong  vaccination center of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) at Senayan Park Mall, Jakarta, Wednesday (19/5/2021).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — People have the right to get the Covid-19 vaccine. The limited number of vaccines, however, means that it must be administered based on a scale of priority. All parties, therefore, need to ensure that the vaccines are given to vulnerable groups, both through the state-led program and the private gotong royong program.

The Health Ministry’s spokesperson for Covid-19 vaccination, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said when contacted in Jakarta on Thursday (20/5/2021) that the government had prepared two vaccination schemes, namely the state-led program and the private gotong royong program. The state-led one is given free of charge for the general public, while in the gotong royong program, the vaccine costs are borne by companies and given free of charge for their employees.

“All vaccination programs need to prioritize people who are epidemiologically vulnerable. In the gotong royong program, companies in high risk zones and labor-intensive companies are top priority,” Nadia said.

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Nadia added that along with the gotong royong vaccination program, the government had begun the third phase of its vaccination program, which targets people in vulnerable areas based on geographical, social and economic aspects.

Therefore, employees who have not received the vaccine through the gotong royong scheme but are living in vulnerable areas, will be prioritized in the third phase of the state-led vaccination program.

All vaccination programs need to prioritize people who are epidemiologically vulnerable.

“The government ensures that health comes first. So subsidies for the gotong royong program for companies are not an option. The government continues to prioritize people in vulnerable areas, including groups of informal workers,” Nadia said.

Data as of 20 May 2021 shows that some 9.5 million people had been administered the complete two dose of the Covid-19 vaccines. The figure includes 1.3 million health workers, 6.1 million public service workers and 1.9 million elderly citizens. The number is still far from the targeted 181.5 million people.

During a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission IX, Bio Farma president director Honesti Basyir said the gotong royong vaccination program involved at least 199 companies, consisting of 163 private companies and 36 state-owned companies. So far, 69,730 doses have been administered to all companies involved.

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Gotong royong vaccination

The current availability of the vaccine for the gotong royong program is 500,000 doses of vaccine produced by China’s state-owned pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, which was received by the country on 30 April and 1 May 2021. According to the plan, Indonesia will receive up to 7 million doses from Sinopharm and will be sent gradually until August 2021.

Apart from the Sinopharm vaccine, the country is seeking to obtain up to 3 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from China’s CanSino Bio between July and September 2021. The vaccine will also be used in the gotong royong scheme.

KOMPAS/TOTOK WIJAYANTO

Officers collect data on potential vaccine recipients at Gonzaga College, South Jakarta, Wednesday (5/5/2021). Vaccination lasts for two days, until Thursday (6/5/2021). Vaccine recipients are the elderly, teaching staff, and people with disabilities.

In addition to the 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine, which was procured by publicly listed pharmaceutical firm PT Kimia Farma, Indonesia has also received another 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government.

Nadia said the allocation of the donated vaccine doses was still being discussed. “The allocation of the donated vaccine from the UAE is still being discussed. It has not been confirmed whether it will be used in the government program or the gotong royong vaccination program,” she said.

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Based on the Health Ministerial Regulation No. 10/2021 on the Implementation of Vaccinations to contain the Covid-19 Pandemic, the gotong royong vaccination scheme must use different vaccine brand from the ones used in the state-led program, which uses vaccines produced by Sinovac Biotech, AstraZeneca, Novavax and Pfizer.

Testing

Separately, national Covid-19 task force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said Covid-19 testing had decreased. The decline occurred after the figure had been above the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation of one test per 1,000 population per week for nine consecutive weeks.

The number of tests conducted in the second week of May 2021 only meets the 75.3 percent of the WHO standard. This might be caused by the change of laboratory operations during the Idul Fitri holiday. Besides, the number of people tested had also decreased.

“The number of testing must be maintained so that it can always be above the WHO standard and can be used to assess the actual decline of Covid-19 cases. Local governments are asked to increase testing in laboratory. Please immediately report if any problem occurs,” Wiku said.

This article was translated by Camilia Adianti