Indonesia Gets Another Batch of Five Million Doses of Ready-to-use COVID-19 Vaccine

Finance Ministry’s Secretary General Heru Pambudi delivers press statement on the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, Monday (23/8). (Photo captured from Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel)

The Government continues to redouble efforts to secure COVID-19 vaccine for the national vaccination drive and to speed up the country for achieving herd immunity.

On Monday (23/08), five million doses of ready-to-use Sinovac vaccine arrived in Indonesia.

“The arrival of five million doses of ready-to-use Sinovac vaccine has added the total doses of COVID-19 vaccine, both in bulk and ready-to-use, in Indonesia to 200 million doses,” Secretary General of Ministry of Finance Heru Pambudi said.

Given the shortage of vaccine among countries, he added, securing vaccine supply is not an easy task; thus, he said the people have to be grateful that Indonesia is able to secure vaccine supply to protect the people.

“Thus, as a token of our gratitude, the Government will optimize the use of vaccine and speed up national vaccination drive so that we can immediately achieve herd immunity,” Heru said.

Heru also underscored that everyone must join hands to speed up and expand the coverage of vaccination drive.

For the record, Ministry of Finance has allocated a budget of Rp57.75 trillion for the program.

He also expressed belief that support from the public can contribute to the realization of the President’s target of administering two million doses of vaccine per day.

“Nevertheless, the most important and fundamental thing is public participation. Thus, we urge the public to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Everyone, including the old, young, and children, must be vaccinated to protect ourselves, families, and the nation,” he said, adding that as of today, Indonesia has administered COVID-19 vaccine to 57 million people, 31 millions of whom have been fully vaccinated.

“Meanwhile, we aim to vaccinate 208 million people to achieve herd immunity, meaning that we still need to inoculate 150 million more people,” he said, while calling on the public to maintain discipline in adhering to health protocols, including wearing face mask and comply with mobility restrictions set by the Government.

On that occasion, Heru also reminded the public to maintain the decreasing trend in infection rate and bed occupancy rate at hospitals.

“We must not let our guard down. We must keep this momentum. We also need to improve discipline. I believe we can do all of this and will get through this if all nation elements work together, join hands, cooperate, and fight together,” he concluded. (FID/UN) (RAS/EP)