By: Aulia Hawa )*
The government continues to maximize the procurement of vaccines for the people of Indonesia. This step was carried out in order to pursue the target towards herd immunity and accelerate Indonesia out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an effort to fulfill the national vaccination needs, Indonesia will return the vaccine on December 2, 2021, namely in stages 144 and 145. The vaccines come from two different brands, AstraZeneca and Covovax with a total amount of more than 5.5 million doses.
Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Usman Kansong said that the smooth arrival of the vaccine made efforts to accelerate and expand the vaccination program more optimal.
Usman said this has become the government’s commitment to secure the availability of vaccines in Indonesia. The government also continues to improve vaccination outcomes in the regions. Given the geographical conditions and the large number of people, it is a challenge in itself to be able to immediately achieve the establishment of herd immunity or herd immunity.
Usman said that cooperation and participation of all elements is needed so that this national vaccination program can be faster and wider. And the most important thing is the participation and participation of the community. The government is also not bored in inviting the whole community to be vaccinated immediately, there is no need to be picky about vaccines, because all vaccines are efficacious and safe. Usman also said that vaccination is not just an effort to protect oneself, but also to protect families and the whole community.
The central government also continues to encourage local governments, especially those with low vaccination rates, to accelerate and expand vaccination programs, especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly.
Meanwhile, the United States Government also continues to support Indonesia in the fight against Covid-19. On December 7, 2021, the United States has sent 1.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine to Indonesia, part of a continuous vaccine donation, through a partnership with COVAX, the Government of Indonesia and UNICEF.
Vaccination with safe and effective doses can of course save lives and help protect Indonesian people from Covid-19.
It should be noted that the United States is the largest donor of COVAX, with a total commitment of $4 billion, which has helped facilitate the donation of a total of more than 44.7 million doses of vaccine to Indonesia.
Bilaterally, so far the United States has donated 18.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Indonesia. As part of the United States’ ongoing commitment to continue to lead the world’s Covid-19 vaccination efforts, the United States has donated a total of 1.1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries around the world.
Globally, the United States has delivered 291 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine selflessly and has pledged to deliver another 200 million by March 2022.
In addition to providing vaccines, the US government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is working with the Government of Indonesia and other partners to strengthen vaccination programs in Indonesia by supporting additional vaccination sites, training health workers to administer vaccines, fighting vaccine misinformation and much more. .
To date, more than 3,400 USAID-supported vaccinators in 768 mobile and temporary clinics have vaccinated more than 1.1 million Indonesians against Covid-19.
Since the start of the pandemic, the US government has committed more than $77 million to support the response to COVID-19 in Indonesia, which is in addition to more than $1 billion in health-related aid over the past two decades.
The United States is also working with Indonesia to accelerate the detection and tracking of Covid-19 cases, improve laboratory capabilities, disease surveillance and rapid response capacity and ensure more people know what to do to protect themselves and others.
Vaccination programs should be accelerated so that herd immunity can be achieved quickly, group immunity is of course a target that must be achieved, because it not only protects the community from the potential for contracting the corona virus, but also saves the community’s economy.
)* The author is a contributor to Pertiwi Institute