VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. The Indonesian government is expecting 10.1 million employees of private companies will be vaccinated against COVID-19 under the self-funded vaccination program.

"The self-funded vaccination program is expected to target 10.1 million people. We hope we can achieve the target of creating herd immunity in Indonesia soon," State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said during an online discussion on Indonesia Health Resilience and Self-Reliance, here on Thursday.

On March 13, 2021, state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) signed a cooperation agreement on the implementation of the self-funded vaccination program targeting employees of private companies and their families.

Through the cooperation, Kadin will register private companies in Indonesia and calculate the quantity of COVID-19 vaccines needed for the program.

Based on data from Kadin, the Health Ministry will determine the total quantity of vaccines to be allocated for private companies.

More than 8.5 million workers of 16,500 private companies have registered to receive the self-funded vaccine so far.

“I am optimistic, through cooperation and concrete work, we can build health resilience to contain the pandemic and create self-reliance,” Thohir remarked.

According to Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, the government is planning to secure 426 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the self-funded vaccination program under which private companies would provide vaccines to employees for free.

“For the vaccines (for the self-funded program), we plan to buy 426 million doses of vaccines. Of the total, the prices and delivery schedules of 275 million doses have been confirmed,” the minister said during a hearing with Commission IX of the House of Representatives here recently.

The prices and delivery schedules for the remaining 151 million doses of self-funded vaccines are yet to be confirmed as the government is waiting for free vaccines from the COVAX Facility, coordinated by the WHO and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), he explained.

To ensure that the self-funded vaccination program does not affect the implementation of the national vaccination program, the private sector will use different vaccines than those currently offered by the government, he added.

Vaccines from Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Pfizer are being administered under the government's vaccination program. The self-funded vaccination program will use Sinopharm and Moderna vaccines, the minister informed.

So far, Indonesia has received 11.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX Facility. Based on the latest information, Indonesia may receive 54 million to 108 million doses of vaccines, Sadikin said. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. Indonesia has again received 16 million semi-finished doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd that arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Thursday.

"Today, we succeeded in bringing in the seventh batch of the COVID-19 vaccine, reaching as many as 16 million (doses) in bulk form," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono noted in his press statement when the vaccine consignment arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

With the arrival of 16 million doses of the vaccine, Indonesia now cumulatively has 53.5 million semi-finished doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccine, transported aboard a Garuda Indonesia aircraft, will be brought directly to the PT Bio Farma Persero office in Bandung of West Java for further processing.

"Of course, after being produced, an evaluation of the quality will be conducted by BPOM (Food and Drug Supervisory Agency) before it is finally administered as a vaccine to the public," Harbuwono stated.

Harbuwono highlighted the importance of vaccine availability in the implementation of the ongoing vaccination program in Indonesia. The government has been striving to expedite vaccination according to the quantity of the available semi-finished vaccine.

"We will continue to increase the speed per day to reach 181.5 million vaccines to achieve the target of herd immunity as quickly as possible," he asserted.

The arrival of 16 million semi-finished doses of the vaccine is the seventh batch of the COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Indonesia. The first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine was delivered to Indonesia on December 6, 2020. Some 1.2 million doses of the finished vaccine were manufactured by Sinovac.

In the second batch, the government again received as many as 1.8 million doses of the finished vaccine manufactured by Sinovac on December 31, 2020.

Subsequently, on January 12, 2021, the government brought in 15 million doses of the semi-finished Sinovac vaccine that were then processed by PT Bio Farma Persero. In the fourth batch, 10 million doses of the Sinovac semi-finished vaccine also arrived in the country on February 2, 2021.

Thereafter, on March 2, 2021, the government also received the shipment of 10 million doses of Sinovac’s semi-finished COVID-19 vaccine, with the last one being 1.1 million doses of the finished vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca that arrived in Indonesia on March 8, 2021. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. The Merah Putih vaccine candidate, which is being developed by Indonesian scientists, is part of an initial effort launched to handle coronavirus pandemics in future, a minister has said.

"This vaccine is our initial endeavor," Research and Technology Minister Bambang PS Brodjonegoro told a webinar highlighting health security concerns here on Thursday.

With the Merah Putih vaccine candidate, Indonesia is expected to be better equipped to cope with future pandemics more quickly, he said.

Due to the urgent need for ensuring public health, vaccine development has been made a part of the government's priorities, remarked Brodjonegoro, who also heads the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

The Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology in Jakarta has said it is planning to hand out vaccine seeds for the Merah Putih vaccine candidate to state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma at the end of March this year.

"The first batch of vaccine seeds will be handed out at the end of March, 2021," head of the Eijkman Institute, Amin Soebandrio, said recently.

PT Bio Farma has partnered with the Eijkman Institute to hold trials and produce the Merah Putih COVID-19 vaccine, developed using a recombinant protein subunit platform.

The vaccine seeds will likely be delivered as per schedule, Soebandrio said, adding that the recombinant protein platform is available and is in the process of being transitioned from the laboratory to the industry.

The vaccine seeds will be subject to preclinical tests as well as Phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials before being allowed for use, he informed.

Coronavirus infections initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019.

Since then, COVID-19 has spread across more than 215 countries and territories, including 34 provinces in Indonesia, leading to a huge number of deaths.

To safeguard Indonesians from the lethal virus, the Indonesian government has secured COVID-19 vaccine doses through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms.

While Indonesia has approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, it is also leaving no stone unturned to develop its indigenous vaccine.

Indonesian scientists are currently rushing to develop Merah Putih, named after the country's national flag.

To win the fight against the coronavirus disease, Indonesia has rolled out a national vaccination program since January 13, 2021.

President Joko Widodo became the first recipient of the Sinovac vaccine jab.

The Health Ministry is planning to inoculate about 181.5 million people under the vaccination program, which is expected to take 15 months.

Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate surpassed one million cases on January 26, 2021.

To attain herd immunity and free the nation from the clutches of the pandemic, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin has said due weightage needs to be attached to successfully administering the COVID-19 vaccine to the targeted population.

This is considering the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease has left the nation in grave public health and economic crises. (Antaranews)

Jakarta. Bali Governor Wayan Koster said he has secured 700 thousand doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, which can be used for inoculating 350 thousand residents in the province.

"Every COVID-19 vaccine recipient will get two shots," he told journalists on the sidelines of a visit to observe a vaccination program in Denpasar on Thursday.

The stock of 700 thousand doses would be administered to about 350 thousand residents in the near future, he informed.

Governor Koster said at least 70 percent of Bali's total population, or three million residents, need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity in the province.

"Thus, we need about six million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to help us create herd immunity. This is what we are requesting from the central government," he informed.

To revive Bali Island's tourism sector, a successful vaccination program is key, said President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) during a visit to the resort island on March 16, 2021.

During the working visit, Widodo predicted that the resort island's tourism sector would begin to revive around the middle of this year.

However, there are preconditions that Bali must fulfill in order to bring its tourism sector back on track, he said.

The President also highlighted the importance of managing the COVID-19 infection rate as it is important to Bali's tourism recovery.

He also underlined the importance of a successful vaccination program and public support for the implementation of health protocols, contact tracing, and self-isolation, he added.

Indonesia has been striving to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since the government officially announced the country's first cases on March 2, 2020.

The government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program this year to arrest the spread of infections.

According to the Health Ministry, it would take 15 months to vaccinate around 181.5 million people under the national program.

Indonesia's COVID-19 infection rate crossed one million cases on January 26, 2021.

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease has dragged Indonesia into serious public health and economic crises.

Tourism has been among the economic sectors severely-affected by COVID-19 in the country, with Bali tourism especially hit hard by the pandemic. (Antaranews)