VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 3 - The first COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to South Jakarta's Police on Wednesday, with 1,356 officers in total projected to be inoculated in a week.

"Every day, we ready at least 150-200 people for vaccination," Chief of the South Jakarta Police Commissioner Azis Andriansyah, who was scheduled for vaccination, stated.

The inoculation, using the vaccine produced by China's Sinovac, was conducted by the South Jakarta Police's doctors.

The vaccination campaign covers 65 officers of the Bhayangkara Kamtibmas (community police) and the police's medical personnel.

Meanwhile, Vice Health Minister Dante Saksono confirmed that Indonesia had obtained the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech.

"Alhamdulillah (thank God), today, we got 10 million (doses of the) bulk vaccine. This bulk vaccine is raw material that Bio Farma will turn into (ready-to-use) vaccines," the minister stated at an online press briefing here on Tuesday.

The first and second batches of the vaccine received from Sinovac comprised 1.2 million and 1.8 million doses of ready-to-use vaccines, respectively, while the third and fourth batches constituted 15 million and 10 million doses of semi-finished vaccines, respectively.

Indonesia has obtained 38 million vaccine doses from the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm since the first batch landed in the country on December 6 last year.

The government intends to utilize the vaccines to support a mass free vaccination program to cover 181.5 million of the country’s total 271-million populace.

"Another 185 million (doses of the) vaccine from Sinovac will be delivered in stages," Saksono remarked.

Bio Farma, which has secured a certificate of good drug production from the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM), will process the bulk Sinovac vaccines to make finished vaccines. (Antaranews)

Mar. 3 - Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army General Andika Perkasa was administered the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19 at the Army Headquarters, here, Tuesday, thereby commencing simultaneous nationwide vaccination of 353,647 soldiers.

The simultaneous vaccination is intended to be conducted in stages, as a follow up to the first stage conducted recently to prioritize 20,565 medical personnel of the Army, the Army's spokesman Brig. Gen. Nefra Firdaus stated here on Wednesday.

"This vaccination is conducted to support the government's program to fight the spread of COVID-19 infection and to boost immunity of every soldier of the Indonesian Army," he affirmed.

A total of 61,054 soldiers were planned to receive the vaccine shots on March 2, 2021, with priority accorded to soldiers responsible for ensuring the public's adherence to health protocols against COVID-19 and personnel of the Jakarta Military Command (Kodam Jaya).

In the second stage scheduled for March 15, 2021, some 80 thousand personnel, comprising those from the Army's Strategic Reserves (Kostrad), Special Forces (Kopassus), and 15 regional military commands across the nation will be inoculated.

The vaccination campaign will continue on April 1, 2021, for 100 thousand soldiers, and on April 16 for 92,028 soldiers.

The Army has deployed some 500 healthcare workers to administer the vaccine.

"Every Indonesian Army soldier is expected to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by April 2021," he stated. (Antaranews)

Mar. 3 - Nearly 8,300 companies, under the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), registered to partake in vaccination in mutual cooperation or independent vaccination by companies offered to employees at no cost.

"Last time, 8,300 (companies) had registered. For the time being, we stop the registration and evaluate this with the government," Kadin's Deputy Chairman for International Relations, Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, stated here on Wednesday.

The number of companies has increased, from 6,689 last week registered to conduct independent vaccination.

Kamdani confirmed that the independent vaccination conducted by those companies will focus on 6.9 million employees and their families.

The vaccination in mutual cooperation is stipulated in article 7 of Health Ministerial Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on vaccination to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

The type of COVID-19 vaccine administered during the inoculation must be different from those offered in the government's vaccination program to ensure unhindered national vaccine distribution.

Moreover, the government's health facility and its medical workers should not be involved so as to not disrupt the national vaccination program.

Kamdani spoke of Kadin having deliberated with the government and state-run vaccine producer PT Biofarma over conducting vaccination in mutual cooperation.

The private sector will be prepared to implement independent vaccination though it would wait for supply of the vaccine imported by Biofarma, according to Kadin's deputy chairman for international relations.

The implementation of vaccinations in mutual cooperation by companies is part of the endeavors to accelerate the implementation of immunization for over 181 million Indonesians to be completed in 12 months, from its earlier targeted 15 months. (Antaranews)

Mar. 3 - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has encouraged educational institutions, including universities, to facilitate the government in refining the quality of human resources to enable Indonesia to progress at the same pace as developed nations.

"One of our main challenges is the quality of human resources at the college level that has not reached the ideal figure," the vice president noted in his remarks at the online Graduation event of Nahdlatul Ulama University (UNU) in West Nusa Tenggara here on Wednesday.

As a country with profuse natural resources, Indonesia should be able to tap into this potential to come up with products of high demand. This can be realized only if the community has proficiency in processing those natural resources.

Amin cited as an example two countries in Asia -- South Korea and Singapore -- that have been able dominate the global market with their electronic products and international business despite having limited human and natural resources.

"South Korea has dominated the world with a variety of quality electronic products and vehicles. Meanwhile, Singapore, which does not have sufficient natural resources, can continue to ably dominate the international business," he pointed out.

Indonesia, with an abundance of human and natural resources, is still scrambling to stay shoulder-to-shoulder with developed nations in Asia.

"Indonesia, which has abundant natural resources, still has to catch up with countries, such as South Korea and Singapore," he stated.

Amin expressed belief that quality education and the large number of people taking up higher education have had a considerable impact on progress in both nations.

"Some nations that are experiencing rapid progress in the world generally have well-educated human resources. For instance, South Korea. They have a gross enrolment ratio of 91 percent in tertiary education, while Singapore is at 62.2 percent," he noted.

To this end, the vice president expects Indonesia's universities, especially the UNU NTB, to broaden their roles and functions in creating human resources, with mastery in technological knowledge, and create innovation to fulfill the demand of the global market.

"The UNU NTB must shoulder the responsibility of preparing qualified and professional human resources, so that they are able to manage the regional potential and become an important part of development programs in West Nusa Tenggara,” the vice president noted. (Antaranews)