VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

More than 132 thousand medical workers from 13,535 health facilities in 92 districts/cities of 34 provinces in Indonesia have received COVID-19 shots, the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program said.

"From January 14 (2021) to Friday (January 22) at 1 p.m., more than 132 thousand, or 22 percent of 598,483 medical workers who have been registered for this first phase vaccination program, have received the COVID-19 jabs," Siti Nadia Tarmizi informed.

Speaking at a virtual press briefing that ANTARA joined from Jakarta on Friday,  Siti Nadia  said if all 598,483 medical workers are vaccinated, another 888,282 paramedics will be inoculated as part of the second phase of the program.

"As we have previously targeted, some 1.4 million medical workers will have got administered with the COVID-19 vaccine by February," she said, adding that about 20,154 paramedics could not be inoculated because of several reasons.

Several of them reportedly contracted COVID-19, while several others had comorbidities or were pregnant, she elaborated.

Ahead of Indonesia's national vaccination program, the Indonesian Ulema Council had issued a fatwa, or decision, on the halal status of China's Sinovac vaccine.

Indonesia's Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) also issued an emergency-use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine, allowing the government to commence its vaccination program on January 13, 2021.

President Joko Widodo, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, and several public figures, including television personality Raffi Ahmad, received the country's first COVID-19 jabs on the day.

The Health Ministry revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to vaccinate about 181.5 million people under the national COVID-19 vaccination program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January 2021 to March 2022," Siti Nadia  stated.

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

Tarmizi said the first phase of the government's immunization program will be further divided into two stages: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022. (Antaranews)