"I request the Health Ministry to immediately meet vaccine needs in each region according to the referral from the regional government, because the acceleration of the vaccination program needs to be done together so that community immunity can be formed as soon as possible," Soesatyo said in a written statement received in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The MPR chairman made the request in response to reports of COVID-19 vaccinations being hampered due to the depletion of vaccine stocks. For that reason, the Health Ministry has not been able to achieve the daily vaccination target, he said.
He also asked the ministry to evaluate the work processes followed by vaccinators on the field and ensure the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
In addition, the Health Ministry needs to reevaluate the data on vaccine needs of each region -- both for the general public and children -- to determine the number of vaccines that must be distributed to each region, the chairman, who is popularly known as Bamsoet, suggested.
He also asked the Health Ministry to realistically calculate its vaccine targets, considering that the number of vaccine recipients and the number of vaccines available should be in sync.
To ensure the availability of vaccine stocks, the government needs to provide full support to the production of vaccines within the country or vaccine imports, Soesatyo said.
"This is crucial since the daily target of vaccinations from the government is increasing. In August (2021), it is planned that the target is around 5 million citizens vaccinated per day," he remarked.
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Translator: Jasuma Fadholi, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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