The Ministry of Health declined to comment on the reports.
Asked about claims that the pandemic is spreading faster than vaccines might be administered, Covid-19 task force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito said the federal government was doing what it could with available resources and reasonably than specializing in ” negative predictions”, is working hard to implement “comprehensive health protocols, vaccines and clinical care concurrently”.
The Ministry of Health also called for a rise in testing and phone tracing.
In the primary phase, Indonesia plans to vaccinate about 1.5 million healthcare employees by February 21, a goal that’s heading in the right direction, in line with the health ministry.
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The variety of coronavirus cases in Indonesia has surpassed 1 million because the country continues mass vaccinations against Covid-19
The variety of coronavirus cases in Indonesia has surpassed 1 million because the country continues mass vaccinations against Covid-19
Widodo said he hoped 181 million people can be vaccinated over the following 12 months, or about 1 million a day for the two-dose vaccine. Indonesia is currently vaccinating about 50,000 people a day, in line with the health ministry.
The logistics and cold chain requirements of an enormous archipelago of 270 million people spanning over 17,000 tropical islands uniquely complicate implementation.
From the capital Jakarta, vaccines will probably be shipped to greater than 10,000 health centers across the country, some in distant areas with limited resources, meaning even keeping the vaccines cold will probably be a challenge.
“Imagine you have a refrigerator full of vaccines and the power goes out,” said Ines Atmosukarto, a molecular biologist working on vaccine development. “All these doses will have to end up in the trash.”
In places like Bengkulu, Sumatra, some health centers wouldn’t have cold storage or stable electricity, said Herwan Antoni, head of the local health agency.
Why vaccine inequality threatens the world’s recovery
Why vaccine inequality threatens the world’s recovery
Indonesia is ill-prepared for the mammoth task, counting on industrial or home fridges as a substitute of medical fridges, said one former senior government official.
“The rate of wastage or spoilage will be incredibly high,” he said.
Senior health ministry official Siti Nadia Tarmizi denied deficiencies within the country’s cold chain, saying it had met WHO requirements after securing medical fridges, a few of which were solar-powered.
She added that the ministry has also acquired the Indonesian company Unilever, which is supplying over 200 vaccine fridges.
“Getting it is not a problem,” said Diah Saminarsih, senior adviser to the WHO director-general in Geneva. “Distributing this is a potential problem.”
Health experts say the primary phase has all the time been the simplest, on condition that there may be good data on health care employees and most of them are willing recipients.
However, there are early signs that a scarcity of trust could also be causing things to stumble.
In Gowa, South Sulawesi province, as many as 200 medical employees delayed administering the shot because some believed it had dangerous unwanted effects and was haram – forbidden for Muslims or attributable to underlying health conditions – said Gaffar, a senior official there who uses the vaccine by name .
In Papua, some medical employees have rejected vaccines out of fear of a “global Antichrist conspiracy,” said Ni Nyoman Sri Antari, head of the health authority within the provincial capital of Jayapura.
The health ministry said the numbers were inaccurate and most medical experts had re-registered.
However, a December 2019 survey by Indonesian pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting found that only 37% of 1,202 respondents expressed willingness to be vaccinated, 40% were undecided and 17% would refuse.
The speed of the vaccine cannot match the speed of transmission of the virus
Indonesia has secured nearly 330 million doses of vaccines from China’s Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax, but currently only has about 3 million ready-to-use doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine.
The Novavax and AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to be delivered within the second quarter – although AstraZeneca is facing delays within the EU – while 25 million doses will probably be produced in Indonesia from Sinovac bulk materials before the tip of March.
Dicky Budiman, a pandemic researcher at Australia’s Griffith University, said this system would take two or perhaps three years to finish, reasonably than the ambitious January 2022 goal.
“Vaccines cannot lead this effort,” he said. “The speed of the vaccine cannot equal the speed of virus transmission.”
