Jakarta (ANTARA) - A spokesperson for COVID-19 Vaccination from the Health Ministry Siti Nadia Tarmizi is confident that Indonesia can achieve the 60-percent COVID-19 vaccination coverage target by the end of 2021.
"Our homework was to vaccinate at least 60 percent of our target by the end of this year. We had exceeded the 40-percent target of the World Health Organization (WHO). Right now, we have focused on pursuing the 60-percent vaccination target," Tarmizi noted during a webinar on prevention of the third wave during Christmas and Year-End Holidays on Tuesday.
The spokesperson later explained that Indonesia had achieved 40 percent of the WHO target for complete vaccination dosage by 2021-end. As many as 40 percent of Indonesia's vaccine recipients had received the full dose of vaccination by November 14, while 130 million people, or about 63 percent, have received the first dose of vaccination, Tarmizi remarked.
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"We are one of the five countries, with the highest vaccination coverage and the number of vaccine recipients," she pointed out.
Tarmizi, concurrently the Director of Direct Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control at the Health Ministry, spoke of the Indonesian government currently pursuing vaccination in remote areas in Indonesia. Vaccination in remote areas encountered far greater challenges as compared to the vaccination program in developed areas that had easy access to health facilities.
"If we look at rural areas, there are people who have to take a boat or have to spend the night to reach the nearest health facility. We have started vaccination in border and remote areas," Tarmizi remarked.
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She affirmed that vaccination, in general, has been one of the government's programs long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Indonesia's citizens were accustomed to the basic immunization program for toddlers implemented annually.
"This meant that vaccination was not a new program in Indonesia. We have seen routine immunizations for children. We already had the infrastructure and supporting human resources, such as health workers. We were only expanding the coverage for COVID-19 vaccination," she concluded.
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