1.12 Million Vaccines Doses Have Expired

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

A medical worker prepares the Moderna vaccine, which will be injected as a booster dose of vaccine, at the Magelang City Government Office, Central Java, Wednesday (19/1/2022). More than 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Indonesia have expired at a time when many people have still not received their first and second doses.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — More than 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in Indonesia have expired at a time when many people have still not received their first and second doses. In fact, the government is racing to achieve its primary vaccination target amid the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

From around 208 million targeted recipients, as of Wednesday (19/1/2022), around 30 million people still have not received their first dose while 86.7 million people have not received their second dose. First dose coverage in Maluku, West Papua and Papua is still below 70 percent.

Members of House of Representatives (DPR) Commission IX have questioned the government over the expiration of so many vaccine doses during a meeting with the Health Ministry in Jakarta on Tuesday evening (18/1). House Commission IX members urged the government to overcome the vaccination gap across the country’s regions.

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Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that as of December 2021, around 1.12 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines had expired before use. Around 98 percent, or 1.1 million doses, of the expired vaccines was donated by developed countries. The vaccines, initially slated for donating to Africa, were instead given to Indonesia because African countries still had low capacity in administering the vaccines as well as lacked a cold chain.

"Many developed countries ordered the vaccines in advance. They kept them, but a lot of the vaccines were unused. At the end of the year, they sent the unused vaccines to us [Indonesia]. We accepted them, as they were free," said Budi.

In the future, the government would only receive vaccine donations that still had at least three months before they expired, said Budi, adding that most the expired vaccines were the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

A clown dressed as a "Boboiboy" doll entertains children who were vaccinated against Covid-19 at SDIT Al-Falah, Cirebon City, West Java, Wednesday (19/1/2022).

The expired vaccines were found in a number of provinces, including West Java (272,000 doses), Central Java (148,000 doses), South Sulawesi (120,000 doses), East Java (104,000 doses), and Banten (90,000 doses).

The fact that many vaccines had expired is ironic, as it comes at a time when many people are still unvaccinated. Vaccination is necessary to increase immunity to minimize the severity of disease from contracting Covid-19.

A report on expired vaccines was also submitted by Netty Prasetiyani, a House Commission IX member from the Prosperous Justice Party faction. "We were asked about the expired vaccines. In Kudus there are 4,000 doses of expired vaccines, East Nusa Tenggara 5,000 doses and also in Barito. They [vaccines] have an expiration date time, how to mitigate it?" she said.

Booster dose rollout

Meanwhile, the municipal administration of Magelang, Central Java, plans to carry out a booster vaccination program from 19 to 22 Jan. 2022. The local administration has prepared around 2,378 doses of the Moderna vaccine for its booster program. The vaccine will expire on 23 Jan. 2022.

According to the head of disease prevention and control at the Magelang Health Office, Yis Romadhon, the office is not prioritizing the elderly in its booster dose program because the vaccine is close to expiring.

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Bayu Satria Wiratama, a faculty member of the biostatistics, epidemiology and population health department at the University of Gadjah Mada School of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, who spoke during a Covid-19 discussion on Wednesday, a spike in Covid-19 cases was unavoidable, given the high level of community mobility and the lack of restrictions.

The Health Ministry’s infectious diseases prevention and control director, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that the majority of increases in new Covid-19 cases were reported in Java and Bali. On 19 Jan. 2022, there were 1,745 new cases of Covid-19, the highest since mid-October 2021.

"We will increase the distribution of PCR reagents, made by Biofarma, that can detect probable Omicron [infections]," she said. (TAN/TAM/FLO/EGI/NCA)

This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.