"Regarding (vaccine) equity, we are carrying out relocation. Thus, we approach regions with relatively large stocks, and they want to distribute it to areas with very minimal vaccine stocks," Acting Director of Immunization Management at the ministry’s Directorate General of Disease Prevention and Handling Prima Yosephine said at the "Vaccination Equity, the Key to Endemic" webinar, which was followed online on Monday.
According to her, vaccine shortages occurred several weeks ago. Nevertheless, they were handled through vaccine transfers.
It took at least 7 to 14 days to transfer the required vaccines to regions in need.
Apart from the vaccine transfers, the Health Ministry also distributed 5 million Pfizer vaccine doses—obtained under the COVAX facility—to 25 provinces in Indonesia.
Yosephine stressed that the government will continue to make efforts to fulfill the need for COVID-19 vaccine doses. For that reason, regions that need vaccine doses are expected to report to the Health Ministry immediately so that the distribution can be carried out quickly.
She also asked people not to waste vaccine stocks until they expire.
In addition to distributing vaccine doses to regions, the ministry is also continuously educating the community on the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, she said.
"Continuous dissemination is still needed. Let us remind the public again of the importance of COVID-19 vaccination, especially now that the trend of cases is starting to show a slight rise again," she added.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 234,666,020 citizens.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Health, as of November 7, 2022, as many as 205,190,090 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 171,989,257 have been administered the second dose, 65,379,116 have taken the third dose or first booster, and 682,436 have received the fourth dose or second booster.
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Translator: Hreeloita Dharma, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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