Self-Paid Vaccine Scheme Cancelled, Supply Should Be for Public
After receiving input and responses from the public, President Joko Widodo decided to cancel the distribution of [self-paid] vaccines through Kimia Farma.
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Agnes Theodora/Cyprianus Anto Saptowalyono
·4 minutes read
AFP/TIMUR MATAHARI
A security personnel guards a shipment of Moderna Covid-19 vaccines received from the US in Bandung on July 11, 2021, as Indonesia faces its most serious outbreak driven by the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Following criticism from various parties, the government has cancelled plans to allow individuals to pay for vaccination under the Gotong Royong (mutual cooperation) private vaccination program. The supply of the Sinopharm vaccine intended for use in the paid vaccination scheme should instead be sold to small and medium-sized companies at lower prices or purchased by the government for the free public vaccination program.
Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung announced the cancellation of the self-paid vaccination scheme in Jakarta on Friday (16/7/2021). According to him, the Gotong Royong vaccination program should be implemented by companies that should cover their employees’ vaccination costs.
"After receiving input and responses from the public, President Joko Widodo decided to cancel the distribution of [self-paid] vaccines through Kimia Farma. Therefore, all vaccinations must remain under the free of charge mechanism as the President previously stated," said Pramono.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, added Pramono, had also emphasized that all ministries, institutions, and leaders must approach the implementation of the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) with a sense of crisis. All ministers and institutional heads were therefore prohibited from traveling abroad.
Responding to the government\'s decision, the deputy chairperson of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Shinta W. Kamdani, said Kadin would verify the companies that had signed up to the Gotong Royong vaccination program. She said a number of companies had withdrawn from the program because their employees had already been vaccinated for free under the government’s public vaccine drive.
According to her, the verification would take time. In addition to verifying the list of companies participating in the Gotong Royong vaccination program, Kadin, as its organizer, must also check if any employees registered in the Gotong Royong program had already been vaccinated under the government’s public scheme. Workers could not be registered for both Kadin’s vaccine program and the government\'s vaccination program, she said.
"So there will be obstacles. We have to verify the participants. Do they want to participate in the Kadin Gotong Royong vaccination [program], or have they [already been vaccinated]? From there, we can calculate the exact number of companies that will use the existing vaccine supply," she said.
Kadin would verify the companies that had signed up to the Gotong Royong vaccination program
However, Shinta believed that the current supply of the Sinopharm vaccine would be used up. Kadin would also expand its vaccination centers to make it easier for companies to access the Gotong Royong program.
“There are many companies in Indonesia and not all of their workers have received the free vaccine. So we are sure that there are still companies that want to participate in the Gotong Royong vaccination program that Kadin has organized,” said Shinta.
AFP/TIMUR MATAHARI
A doctor displays a vaccine for COVID-19 coronavirus at Padjadjaran university educational hospital in Bandung, West Java on July 6, 2020, in preparation for efforts to vaccinate 1,620 volunteers in the community next week.
Lower price
If the existing vaccine supply were not used up, Shinta said, the decision on what to do with the remaining supply would fall on the government and state-owned pharmaceutical companies Biofarma and Kimia Farma. The existing vaccine supply could be used to administer an extra dose as a booster, or it could be reallocated to the government’s free vaccination program, she added.
The existing total supply of the Sinopharm vaccine is estimated to be 15 million doses.
“So far, the Gotong Royong vaccination program has been intended only for companies. However, in the future, the government can decide how to use it. We can use it for the free vaccine program, because there are still many people who have not been vaccinated," she said.
Separately, secretary-general Timboel Siregar of the All-Indonesian Workers\' Organization (OPSI) said that in order to enable companies absorb the existing supply of the Sinopharm vaccine, the government would need to lower the vaccine’s price. A price of Rp 879,140 for two doses was deemed too high, and made access difficult for many companies, especially small and medium enterprises as well as businesses in the labor-intensive industry.
A price of Rp 879,140 for two doses was deemed too high, and made access difficult for many companies, especially small and medium enterprises as well as businesses in the labor-intensive industry
"For the vaccine [supply] to be absorbed, the price must be lowered. Because if the price is not lowered, many companies cannot afford to buy [the vaccines]. If they are not used up, then the existing vaccine supply should be used in the government\'s free vaccination program," he said.
(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi)
