VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Health workers get covid-19 vaccine jabs - beritajakarta

The Health Ministry has claimed 482,145 of the 1,530,308 medical workers targeted under the national immunization program have received the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Of the 482,145 medical workers, 20,810 have received their second vaccine doses as of January 30, 2021, according to data posted on the Health Ministry's website on Saturday.

The ministry said 1,500,717 of the 1,530,308 medical workers targeted to receive the COVID-19 vaccine have re-registered with the health authorities for vaccination.The government is targeting to vaccinate a total of 181,554,466 people, or 70 percent of the Indonesian population of more than 270 million, against SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, to create herd immunity. Health workers are the first prioritized group in the vaccination campaign.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said earlier that the government has set itself the target of inoculating 1.5 million health professionals by late February, 2021.

"It is estimated that by the end of this month, we will have vaccinated 500 thousand healthcare workers; so, we can achieve the target of (inoculating) 1.5 million of them through the end of February," Sadikin informed during an online seminar on Saturday.After the vaccination of medical workers has been completed, the government will start administering the COVID-19 vaccine to public service officers, including military and police personnel.

Sadikin said he hopes the vaccination of public service officers can be rolled out in early March this year, and the general public can receive their first vaccine doses starting late April this year.

The minister pointed out that several vaccine producers are yet to complete clinical tests, which has lead to ambiguity over the immune period. Therefore, he has called for expediting the vaccination process.Indonesia has currently secured vaccine supply from four different producers: 125 million doses from China’s Sinovac and 50 million doses each from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Novavax//ANT