Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung (ANTARA) - Bangka Belitung (Babel) Islands Governor Erzaldi Rosman Djohan has instructed the district and city governments to promptly use up the stocks of COVID-19 vaccine, as a step to expediting vaccination in the area.

"Do not wait for it. Just expend it. Let the stocks run out, as we have to accelerate vaccination," Djohan noted on Tuesday.

Djohan instructed Babel's heads of districts and cities to expend vaccine stocks in response to complaints from the district and city governments regarding the limited availability of the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The central government cannot continue to send vaccines if several regions still have stocks for the next few days," he added.

The governor targets each region to complete the daily inoculation target of 20 thousand vaccines per day. It is not impossible for Babel to be able to realize 40 percent of the vaccination acceleration program until the end of September 2021, Djohan stated.

"The central government will only send it again if there are two days of stocks left in the area. For that, I emphasize that this week's stock could be utilized, so that we can request for another stocks again," Djohan remarked.

According to Djohan, the provincial government will continue to distribute COVID-19 vaccine stocks to regions on the basis of their requirements.

"Currently, vaccination in Babel has reached only 27 percent, and with the acceleration of this vaccination, it can reach 40 percent by next month," he affirmed.

Head of the Babel Health Service, Andri Nurtito, stated that the available vaccine stocks reached some 43 thousand doses.

"Please utilize the available vaccine stocks until they run out because if stocks are still left in the area at this time, vaccination should have taken place every day. If the vaccination goes smoothly, there will be no more stocks left," he noted.

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Translator: Aprionis, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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