VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Vaccination Program. (ANTARA FOTO/SIGID KURNIAWAN - 

Vaccinations have been administered to some 13,721,627 citizens in Indonesia as of Saturday, or some 34.01 percent of the 40,349,049 citizens targeted for inoculation until mid-2021.

The government has added 22,234 recipients on Saturday against the figure recorded on Friday, according to data provided by the COVID-19 Task Force.

Of the total vaccine recipients, some 8,954,300 have received their second shots, the task force revealed.

Among the vaccine recipients are frontline medical and public service workers as well as senior citizens.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had remarked earlier that amid sufficient vaccine stocks, the Indonesian government seeks to inoculate one million people in June.

However, the total number of vaccine recipients still lags behind the target set by the government for creating herd immunity in the country.

"On March 26 (2021), we reached 10 million recipients, and the recipient count went up to 20 million on April 30. Hence, we can increase the figure by 10 million within a month’s time," he affirmed.

To boost the vaccination rate, Sadikin has constantly urged authorities across Indonesia to help bolster the nation’s vaccination capacity.

Indonesia has been striving to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year.

To stem the transmission of the lethal virus, the government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program since January 13 this year.

The time frame for conducting the vaccination has been set from January 2021 to March 2022.

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate at least 181.5 million people, comprising 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces.

The Health Ministry expects the inoculation of the targeted recipients to take 15 months.

The first phase of the government's immunization program has been segregated into two periods: January-April 2021 and April 2021-March 2022.

Even as vaccinations are being rolled out, Indonesia has been reeling from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic that has crippled nations across the globe.

Indonesia's public health and economy have been dealt a major blow from the coronavirus disease crisis, with some sectors, including travel and tourism, battered by the pandemic//ANT