On Thursday, at 10.40 a.m. local time, the second batch of Sinovac vaccine distribution, totaling 20,000 vials, arrived at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International AirportDenpasar, Bali (ANTARA) - With the arrival of another 20 thousand vials of China’s Sinovac vaccine on Thursday, Bali now has 51 thousand vaccine vials for the national immunization program scheduled this month, according to the Bali health office.
Bali received the first batch of 31 thousand vaccine vials on Tuesday, head of the Bali provincial government's health office, Ketut Suarjaya, said here on Thursday.
"On Thursday, at 10.40 a.m. local time, the second batch of Sinovac vaccine distribution, totaling 20,000 vials, arrived at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport," he added.
The vaccine packages will be stored in the Bali health office's cold-storage rooms while officials wait for an appropriate time to distribute them to all districts and cities in Bali, Suarjaya said.
Bali will prioritize 30,320 frontline medical workers as well as the governor, provincial police chief and military commander, district heads, and city mayors in the vaccine program, he informed.
The Bali health office has set a target of vaccinating around 2.9 million citizens, or 70 percent of Bali's total population, which is estimated at 4.3 million.
"At least, 70 percent of Bali's total population will have to be administered [the COVID-19 vaccine] to create herd immunity," he said, adding that the vaccination program will be conducted after the Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) issues an emergency-use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to administer vaccines to 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," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated on Sunday.
During the period, the government is targeting to vaccinate about 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.
The first phase of the government's vaccination program will be divided into two periods — January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022, according to Tarmizi. (INE)
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Translator: NL Rhismawati, Rahmad Nasution
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