Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia will only reach its vaccination target of 2.7 million doses per day in November, as its vaccine supplies are imported, predicted Andree Surianta, Researcher at the Center for Indonesian Policy Study (CIPS). "If we consider the fastest rate, maybe this will happen in November, because we will receive 85 million vaccine doses in October. If supply increases, the speed could be even faster," he said on Thursday.

This calculation is based on the vaccine supplies received by Indonesia each month as shown in data from the Ministry of Health, which was presented to the House of Representatives. Every batch of vaccines is expected to run out the following month.

According to Surianta, at least in the next few months, Indonesia can still reach 1 to 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine injected per day, adding if President Joko Widodo’s vaccination target is to be reached by the end of 2021, 317 million vaccine doses, or 2.5 million doses per day, are needed for the last four months.

"If we look at the availability of vaccine supplies, it is only possible in the last two months," he stated, noting the speed of vaccinations is not only a matter of rate of injections, but it is also affected by uneven distribution from the center to the regions.

In a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination campaign on 13th January, 2021.

According to data from the Ministry of Health, 65,229,678 people have received their first vaccine dose while 37,155,330 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
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Translator: Aditya R, Raka Adji
Editor: Suharto
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