Indonesia Continues to Push for Equal COVID-19 Vaccine Access for All Countries: Minister

As many as 3,476,400 doses of AstraZena vaccine arrive at Soekarno Hatta International airport in Tangerang, Banten, on Tuesday (13/07/2021). (Photo by: Press Media and Information Bureau of Presidential Secretariat/Kris)

The Indonesian Government is committed to securing COVID-19 vaccine to meet the country’s vaccination target of 181.5 million people, Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi has said.

In addition, the Government will also continue to encourage equal access to COVID-19 vaccine for all countries worldwide.

“In North America and Europe, for example, 75 percent of the population has been vaccinated. Meanwhile in Africa, the figure only reached 4.03 percent and in the ASEAN region, only 16.3 percent of the population has been injected,” said Retno, while welcoming the arrival of 3,476,400 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine under multilateral cooperation COVAX Facility online, Tuesday (13/07/2021).

As of 13 July 2021, the Minister further said, as many as 3.5 billion doses of vaccines have been administered to all people worldwide, meaning that almost 44 percent of the world population has been vaccinated.

According to her, the figure is still not sufficient given the fact that global vaccine inequality still prevails.

Retno went on to say that Director General of WHO had estimated that there should be 350 million doses of vaccine as additional supply to vaccinate 10 percent of the population in each country by September 2021.

The world also needs 11 million doses of vaccine to vaccinate 70 percent of the world population by 2022, she added.

It is not a simple challenge to face, Retno said, while asserting that cooperation, collaboration, and solidarity are key to addressing the challenges.

“Amid all challenges we face during COVID-19 pandemic, COVAX will continue to work hard so that the vaccine supply for all countries, especially developing countries can be increased. It is expected that the vaccine supply will increase from this year’s September to October onwards,” said Retno who also co-helms multilateral COVAX Facility.

Retno also mentioned that the increase in vaccine supply is made possible through cooperation between the vaccine alliance GAVI, Sinovac, and Sinopharm that have obtained emergency use listing (EUL) from WHO.

“GAVI has also announced commitment for hundreds of millions of vaccine doses through the dose-sharing scheme”, she remarked. (UN) (AP/MUR)