VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian government is considering allowing private companies to carry out Covid-19 vaccinations independently. Previously, the government had decided to provide free vaccinations to all citizens. President Joko Widodo said that independent or paid vaccination can be applied to accelerate the vaccination program for all people in Indonesia. According to President Joko Widodo, this will help the government speed up the formation of herd immunity in the community in order to prevent wider spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The President also said that independent vaccinations could be carried out with different vaccine brands and carried out in different places. Indonesian private companies will be allowed to buy their own vaccines from the Covid-19 vaccine manufacturer. The condition is that the vaccine must be in accordance with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard. Vaccine recipient data must also be reported to the government so that there is no overlapping vaccination.

Commission IX of the House of Representatives –DPR dealing with Health and Manpower has also given a green light for the possibility of implementing independent vaccination, especially for the companies. Chairman of the Commission, Felly Estelita Runtuwene, stated that she is considering supporting the plan for the Covid-19 independent vaccine program.

Indonesia has around 30 thousand vaccinators, 10 thousand Community Health Centers, and three thousand hospitals that can be mobilized to speed up the vaccination program. Based on calculations, if each vaccinator can vaccinate 30 people a day, the vaccination is targeted to be done to nearly 1 million people a day. This means that the vaccination program in all regions in Indonesia will be completed in fewer than one year. Meanwhile, the number of positive infections in Indonesia is still high; it has even exceeded 14,000 positive cases in one day.

The option to implement the independent vaccination is being discussed by the government. If this is actually implemented, the vaccination program in Indonesia will return to the government's original plan, namely free-of-charge and paid vaccinations.