"Some 20,678 people received the first dosage," the spokesperson noted as confirmed by ANTARA here on Tuesday evening.
The government has categorized people with disabilities as a vulnerable group along with pregnant mothers that constituted a group prioritized to receive vaccination, she noted. Most of the vaccine recipients were teenagers.
Tamrizi pointed out that the number of targeted disabled people in Indonesia cannot be described in detail due to an issue with the data collection process.
"Perhaps, to this day, we do not have valid data to know how many our targets are," she remarked
"We do not have detailed data regarding the number of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups that will be vaccinated," she affirmed.
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On a separate occasion, Head of the Indonesian Disabled People Association (PPDI) Ghufron Sakaril ensured a relatively high level of participation from people with disabilities for the COVID-19 vaccination.
"Recently, the disabled have started to receive information from TV, radio, online media, and inter-group discussions that had made them more open to receiving the vaccine," he explained.
At the onset, several disabled people were apprehensive about getting vaccinated over fears arising from the spread of hoaxes or misinformation among members of the public, he noted.
"They were very wary of the side-effects of vaccination, specifically its effects on people with comorbidities," he elaborated.
PPDI, as an organization that represents the disabled in Indonesia, has involved the government to provide inputs to make the vaccination program a success.
"Recently, vaccination is proceeding quite well, as it involves the people with disabilities organization that had helped bring in more disabled to join the program," he affirmed.
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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