VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The government is likely to bear half the COVID-19 vaccination cost and charge the remaining 50 percent from the public, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Muhadjir Effendy, said.

"This is still tentative. It is likely to be 50:50," he said here on Monday.

The government is in the process of assessing how much of the vaccine cost it will bear and has yet to decide on it, he informed.

"There has just been a meeting with the President to evaluate how much is to be borne by the government and how much is to be charged from the public," he added.

Instead of 107 million doses projected earlier, 182 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will now be made available to the public, he revealed.

President Joko Widodo has instructed that medical workers and non-medical workers, who have been at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19, will be prioritized for vaccination, he said.

"In addition, the vaccination will also be prioritized to those spearheading the economic recovery (efforts),” he stated.

This means that the government will give priority to traders, shopkeepers, employees, and small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, he explained.

Indonesia needs 350 million vaccine doses since each citizen would need to be administered two shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, chairman of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), Bambang Soesatyo, said recently.

"The government's success to receive 270 million doses of vaccine from several countries to meet domestic needs is worthy of praise. However, with the Indonesian population of 268.5 million, of which, 70 percent must be vaccinated, the real minimum requirement for the COVID-19 vaccine will be 350 million doses," Soesatyo noted in a statement.

The MPR supports the government's endeavors to address the shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, he affirmed.

It would not be easy to meet the real minimum requirement for COVID-19 vaccines since all countries must compete with one another to get the much sought-after doses, he pointed out.

"With the global population of 7.8 billion, the world needs more than 15 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine, while the global production capacity is projected to reach 8.4 billion doses," he stated.

Nearly three billion doses of the total production capacity have been ordered by developed nations, so the Indonesian government must strive to obtain additional vaccines to meet its target, he stressed. (Antaranews)