The number (of people) registered (for self-funded vaccination) reaches 3.5 million. We believe the number will increase in future.
Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA) - Some 3.5 million people will receive the COVID-19 vaccination under a self-funded vaccination program, according to the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin).

"The number (of people) registered (for self-funded vaccination) reaches 3.5 million. We believe the number will increase in future," Kadin Deputy Chairman for Organization, Membership and Regional Empowerment Anindya Bakrie noted in Batam, Riau Islands Province, on Thursday night.

Bakrie pointed out that thousands of companies had voiced support for the self-funded vaccination program.

"Of course, we will register all of them, and the government will later verify them," he stated.

The chamber is cooperating with the government for the procurement of self-funded vaccines.

Furthermore, Kadin is cooperating with pharmaceutical firm Biofarma and hundreds of private hospitals across Indonesia to ensure that the program is a success, according to Bakrie.

"We have been tasked with providing 20 million out of the 175 million doses of the vaccine that the government will procure," he affirmed.

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

“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,” Sadikin noted during a hearing with Commission IX of the House of Representatives here on Monday.

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

To ensure that the program does not affect the implementation of the national vaccination program, the private sector will use vaccines different from those currently offered by the government, Sadikin revealed.

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Translator: Yuniati JN/Suharto
Editor: Sri Haryati
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