VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Foreign Minister  Retno Marsudi addresses Global Town Hall 2021 held virtually in  Jakarta on Saturday. ANTARA/Azis Kurmala - 

Indonesia has always called for fair and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines at bilateral, regional and multilateral forums, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has said.

“Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his concern about vaccine distribution at bilateral, regional, and multilateral forums. I am also one of the chiefs of multilateral cooperation for COVID-19 vaccine procurement, COVAX Advance Market Commitment Engagement Group (COVAX-AMC EG) established to facilitate aaccess to vaccines for 92 countries,” she said at Global Town Hall 2021 held virtually here on Saturday.

She said vaccine will become scarce and scarce goods is often sold to the highest bidders.

“That is what is happening now. Nearly 64.99 percent of people in high income countries have received their first vaccine dose compared to 6.48 percent in low income countries. More than 80 percent of vaccines have been delivered to G20 member states compared to 0.4 percent to low income countries,” she said.

Everyday there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in low income countries.

As many as 56 countries failed to meet the WHO target of vaccinating 10 percent of their population as of September 2021 and almost 80 countries are unlikely to achieve the target of vaccinating 40 percent of their population at the end of this year, she noted.

Meanwhile, at least 100 million vaccine doses cannot be used in G7 countries in 2021 because they have expired. The number of expired doses may swell to 800 million in mid-2022.

“If all the COVID-19 vaccine doses administered globally were distributed equitably, then our 40 percent vaccination target for each country would be achieved,” she remarked.

However, many countries relied on COVAX facility as the only means to obtain vaccines.

“COVAX has shipped more than 507 million doses. But COVAX does not produce vaccine and has failed to achieve its target of shipping 2 billion doses this year. We still need another 550 million doses to achieve the 40 percent vaccination target set by WHO for each country,” she said.

The minister said the global COVID-19 vaccine production currently reaches 1.5 billion doses per month so that vaccine needs are actually sufficient from the supply perspective ,

“But will they be distributed fairly this time?. The challenge to the global vaccination effort does not stop here. We must get as many vaccine doses as possible. That’s not an easy task,” she added.

There is wrong information to challenge because it has contributed to vaccine doubt. Not all countries are prepared to receive vaccine doses in large quantities much less have national strategy to distribute them, she said.

Low-income countries have to increase their health spending by an average of 56.6 percent to cover the vaccination cost for 70 percent of their population compared to 0.8 percent in high income countries, she said//ANT