Gov’t to Kick Off COVID-19 Vaccination for Public Workers

By Office of Assistant to Deputy Cabinet Secretary for State Documents & Translation     Date 15 Februari 2021
Category: News
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(Photo by: Ministry of Health)

The Government to kick off COVID-19 vaccination batch two on 17 February 2021 for public workers and senior citizens aged 60 and above.

The vaccination batch two, which will be given to 38.5 million people comprising 16.9 million public workers and more than 21 million senior citizens, is expected to complete in May 2021.

People falling into ‘public workers’ category are among others, lecturers, teachers, market traders, religious figures, legislative members, state officials, Government employees, personnel of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) and the Indonesian National Police (Polri), public service officers, public transportation officers, reporters, athletes, and those working in tourism sector (hotel, restaurant, tourist destination).

Ministry of Health’s Acting Director General for Disease Prevention and Control Maxi Rein Rondonuwu explained that people that will be vaccinated in the second batch are those having high mobility and meeting many people on a daily basis. Thus, they are very vulnerable to COVID-19 transmission.

Teachers, for example, will be vaccinated to protect them from the virus when they must help students who cannot afford online learning in face-to-face meeting. On the other hand, TNI and Polri personnel are the Government’s priority in vaccination program since they hold pivotal role in contact tracing process of COVID-19 patients.

In addition, the Government also prioritizes public transportation officers, such as those working at train stations, airports, seaports, TransJakarta, Jakarta MRT, and other public transports including ojol (app-based motorcycle taxi) drivers.

To start vaccination batch two, the vaccines will be rolled out to 55,000 market traders at Tanah Abang Market from 17 to 23 February 2021. It will be followed to seven ‘red zones’ provinces in Java and Bali Islands which have the highest virus transmission rate nationwide.

For the record, 70 percent of COVID-19 positive cases in Indonesia are found in the seven provinces. Therefore, the Government deemed it necessary to prioritize vaccination in that provinces.

“The Ministry orders regional governments to complete rolling out vaccines distributed in batch 1 to their people before we send the next vaccines batch because it will be expired in six months,” Maxi said.

In the meantime, COVID-19 Vaccination Spokesperson Siti Nadia Tarmidzi pointed out the importance of screening before giving the vaccines. Persons with comorbidities of hypertension can receive the vaccine except for patients presented with a hypertensive crisis (blood pressure more than 180/110 MmHg).

As for COVID-19 survivors, they can receive the jab three month after they have recovered. Breastfeeding women can also receive the vaccine without taking into account their breastfeeding period.

Persons with diabetes mellitus and HIV/AIDS can also be vaccinated as long as they are taking medicines on daily basis.

“After receiving COVID-19 jab, they cannot receive other vaccine in a month. For example, if you have received vaccine for hepatitis a week ago, COVID-19 jab can only be given 28 days after,” Nadia said. (MINISTRY OF HEALTH PR/UN) (RAS/LW)

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