Mass vaccination becomes Indonesia's efforts to end pandemic: Jokowi

Jakarta, Oct 25 (Antara) - Mass COVID-19 vaccination and community discipline in implementing health protocols (prokes) have become the nation's all-out efforts to end the pandemic, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has stated. "When the pandemic hit Indonesia last year, the government moved to find a way to get a vaccine that is still under research," President Jokowi stated on the official @jokowi account monitored in Jakarta, Monday. President Jokowi noted that the government was working relentlessly to get a COVID-19 vaccine from the start. As a result, when the COVID-19 vaccine was launched by several world pharmaceutical companies, the Indonesian government had already received a commitment to procure vaccines. As of this Monday, Indonesia had obtained hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine, in raw and finished form. The vaccine is obtained through direct cooperation, cooperation with world institutions, as well as assistance from friendly countries. "The vaccines are distributed throughout the country for all the people we need to protect," he affirmed. In his upload on Monday, President Jokowi showed data on the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines by Indonesia until October 4, 2021, reaching 280,527,920 doses. This figure comprises 219,676,280 doses of Sinovac vaccine, 28,190,720 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, 8,450,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses, 8,000,160 Moderna vaccine doses, and 15,710,760 Pfizer vaccine doses. As of Sunday, October 24, 2021, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Indonesia had administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccination to 113,032,768 recipients, the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 67,915,440 recipients, and the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to 1,102,824 recipients. The Indonesian government, in cooperation with relevant agencies, is conducting research to develop a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin earlier stated. "(The relevant agencies) have begun discussions. (What is taking place now) is a threat. Whenever the threat arises, we always strive to produce vaccine ourselves, if possible. That is why we are conducting the research," he noted in a written statement released on Thursday. The relevant agencies involved in the research are the Health Ministry, National Board of Research and Innovation (BRIN), and several related state-owned enterprises. The research is conducted under the coordination of BRIN and the Health Ministry and involves state-owned enterprises and ministerial and non-ministerial government institutions related to it, he revealed.