"Because we had successfully achieved the target, President Jokowi targeted all provinces in Indonesia to be 60 percent vaccinated in November and 70 percent of the first dose in December," Minister Sadikin told Commission IX of the House of Representations during a Hearing Meeting on Monday.
In terms of the administration of the first dose of vaccination, Indonesia has been ranked fifth in the world, with more than 100 million people vaccinated, he noted.
Meanwhile, in terms of the total number of doses injected, Indonesia is among the top five countries in the world, with 200 million doses administered, he said.
"Until last week, we have injected 200 million doses," Sadikin informed.
Indonesia administered the first 50 million doses within 27 weeks starting March 13, 2021, he said. Then, the next 50 million doses were provided in seven weeks starting August 31, 2021, and the last 50 million doses were delivered in four weeks, he expounded.
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"So, every month we get about 50 million doses. With these calculations, we estimate that at the end of December, we can inject almost 300 million doses," he projected.
Sadikin said his ministry is aiming to vaccinate 168 million or 80 percent of the 208 million people targeted by the program with the first dose and 124 million people or 60 percent of the targeted population with the second dose by December, 2021.
President Jokowi had requested that the average daily vaccinations be raised to two million doses, a target that has been achieved, he added.
"Our peak was on October 21 with 2.4 million doses," Sadikin remarked.
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The achievement of 2 million daily vaccinations caught the United States Health Minister Xavier Becerra's attention during his visit to Indonesia since the US has only been able to vaccinate 1.5 million people per day, he said.
"Our achievement cannot be separated from the help of the Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI) and National Police (Polri) in assisting the vaccination activity," he remarked.
Currently, there are 13 provinces in Indonesia with vaccination coverage above 60 percent, Sadikin added.
"So, we will push vaccinations in areas with vaccination coverage below 60 percent to complete the target set by President Jokowi," he informed.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Resinta S
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
