The vaccine will be allocated for public service officers, including the TNI (Indonesian Military) and Polri (the Indonesian Police), starting the end of February
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The government will issue regulations on the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination in mutual cooperation, Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartarto stated.

"Regarding the vaccination in mutual cooperation, the minister of health will prepare a Permenkes (Regulation of the Minister of Health)," Chair of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) stated at the Presidential Office, Jakarta, Wednesday.

"One of the aspects in the Permenkes related to testing includes the rapid (test) antigen. Hence, the antigen rapid (test) will be included in the Permenkes, so it can be used for screening," he remarked.

Vaccination in mutual cooperation or independent vaccination encompasses the provision of free COVID-19 vaccination services by corporations for employees.

The implementation of vaccinations in mutual cooperation by companies is part of the efforts to expedite the implementation of immunization in order to achieve community immunity against COVID-19.

The government is currently still implementing a free COVID-19 vaccination program, with priority targets for health workers.

The Ministry of Health is targeting vaccinations for a total of 1.5 million health workers to be completed by the end of February 2021.

After the vaccination of health workers is complete, the government will inoculate 17.4 million public service workers.

At a later stage, vaccination will be conducted on other groups of people.

President Joko Widodo has given the Ministry of Health a target to complete the COVID-19 vaccination for all targets within a year.

State-owned vaccine manufacturer PT Bio Farma (Persero) earlier confirmed that the COVID-19 vaccine for public service officers, including the Indonesian military and police, will be allocated at the end of February.

Bio Farma spokesman Bambang Heriyanto stated that the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM) will issue the lot release of the vaccine produced by Bio Farma, and the first batch of vaccine production is expected to be completed in mid-February.

"The vaccine will be allocated for public service officers, including the TNI (Indonesian Military) and Polri (the Indonesian Police), starting the end of February," Heriyanto stated at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday.

The COVID-19 vaccine bulk, after being processed into a vaccine, must undergo a series of rigorous quality tests conducted by the Bio Farma laboratory and BPOM to ensure that it has met the quality standards.

"To maintain the quality of the vaccines, Bio Farma applies an integrated vaccine distribution system equipped with an Internet of Things (IoT) dashboard in the process," he explained.

The shot will be named COVID-19 Vaccine and have a different packaging from the earlier distributed vaccine, CoronaVac.
Related news: COVID-19 vaccine to be allocated to military, police at Feb-end

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Translator: Indra P, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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