VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

1,100 employees of services sector in Tanjungpinang get inoculated

Some 1,100 employees of services sector and tourism stakeholders in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands Province, have received the first shots of AstraZeneca vaccine, Tanjungpinang Mayor Rahma said.

“We keep moving with the vaccination program,” she said in a press statement that ANTARA quoted in Tanjungpinang, the capital of Riau Islands Province, on Sunday.

Rahma said she was happy to see the enthusiasm of the city’s residents in joining the government’s vaccination program amid the government’s endeavors to revive the country’s economy.

“Thank you for your active participation in the vaccination program. This indicates that we are all keen to be free from the novel coronavirus pandemic,” she said.

For those who have been vaccinated, they must still abide to the strict rules of health protocols, such as wearing face mask, washing hands, and maintaining physical distancing measure, she added.Indonesia remains in grip of the global pandemic of COVID-19 that has severely hit its economy but the government is striving to win the fight against it through a national vaccination program.

According to the Health Ministry, it will take about 15 months to vaccinate about 181.5 million people under the national program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated recently.

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate about 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.

Tarmizi noted that the first phase of the government's immunization program has been divided into two periods: January-April 2021 and April 2021-March 2022.

This coronavirus pandemic has severely hit the country’s economy. In reviving the tourism sector, for instance, the Indonesian government has planned a travel bubble.In the first stage of its implementation, the travel bubble between Indonesia and Singapore will initially run between Singapore and Bintan, Riau Islands//ANT