Jakarta (ANTARA) - Hundreds of thousands of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine doses arrived in Indonesia on Thursday, marking the 89th and 90th stages of vaccine arrival in the country.
"As directed by President Joko Widodo, vaccine doses that have arrived must be immediately distributed and then be administered to the community. Hence, the faster the community is vaccinated, the more protected we are from COVID-19," Director General of Information and Public Communication at the Ministry of Communications and Informatics, Usman Kansong, noted in a press statement, Thursday.
The 89th stage of vaccine arrival comprised 601,380 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the form of finished products, thereby bringing the number of Pfizer vaccine doses received by Indonesia to 16.3 million as of October 14.
The Pfizer vaccine supplies, on arrival, were immediately distributed to eight provinces: South Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, North Maluku, North Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Maluku, West Sulawesi, and West Java.
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Meanwhile, the 90th stage, which also arrived on the same day, comprised 672,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The country received a total of 282,490,700 doses through the arrivals of vaccines from various brands.
Kansong stated that increasing vaccination coverage in regions is essential for the country to achieve herd immunity. Hence, sufficient vaccine stocks are necessary.
Apart from vaccination, he also appealed to the public to comply with the health protocols.
In a bid to boost immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, and President Joko Widodo was the first vaccine recipient under the program.
According to the Health Ministry's data, as of October 14, 2021, as many as 104,308,702 citizens had received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose, while 60,422,073 Indonesians had been fully vaccinated.
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