Jakarta (ANTARA) - Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko affirmed that the government's stock of the third dose of the COVID-19 booster vaccine was sufficient and had not expired.
"We have a sufficient supply of vaccines. The health minister had reported to President Joko Widodo about the vaccine stock and will make immediate efforts to distribute the vaccine," Moeldoko noted on Tuesday.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) had earlier announced the commencement of the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine booster on January 12, 2022.
The booster vaccine will be given free to all Indonesians while prioritizing the elderly and vulnerable groups.
"Several vaccines that expired on that date will be used first," Moeldoko noted.
He spoke of the government having readied several strategies to disseminate information to administer the booster vaccine.
"We give vaccine stock quotas of 25 percent to the National Police, 25 percent to the Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI), 25 percent to the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), and 25 percent to the Ministry of Health. Every element works together in order to administer the booster vaccine," he noted.
Moeldoko remarked that the Indonesian government had currently administered 284 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, though the stocks were not evenly distributed.
Related news: All Indonesians to get free COVID-19 boosters: Widodo
"Four regions -- Papua, West Papua, Aceh, and Maluku -- need to push their vaccination coverage," he noted.
Moeldoko urged the public to participate in receiving the booster vaccine since the new variant of COVID-19 called Omicron had emerged in Indonesia.
The government will provide five types of vaccines that have received Emergency Use Authorization from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) as a vaccine booster: Sinovac/Coronavac, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Zificav.
Based on data from the Ministry of Health on Tuesday at 18:00 local time, 171,445,921 people had received the first dose of vaccination, while 117,650,566 of them had been fully vaccinated with the second dose.
Meanwhile, 1,329,884 health workers in Indonesia had been administered the booster vaccine.
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