Health Minister Budi Gunadi: The vaccination process against Covid-19 takes 3.5 years

Bisnis.com, JAKARTA – Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said it took 3.5 years to complete the Covid-19 vaccination process.

“Approximately 3.5 years were needed for all vaccines,” said the Minister of Health, quoted on the official website of the Ministry of Health ..go.id, on Thursday, December 31, 2020.

The estimated time, Budi Gunadi said, is based on calculating the number of people who will be the target of vaccination. To achieve herd immunity (group immunity), the government has prepared 426 million doses of vaccine for 181 million Indonesians. According to WHO standards, each resident will receive two injections.

The government is trying to acquire vaccines from 5 routes. Four bilateral producers, namely Sinovac from China, Novavax from Canada-America, Pfizer from Germany-America, AstraZeneca from Switzerland-UK and one of the multilateral ones, namely COVAX / GAVI from the GAVI vaccine alliance supported of the WHO and CEPI.

Budi said that communication remains intense, considering that currently vaccines are the most contested product by all countries in the world.

“As there are no elements yet, we have to prepare. So here there is a humanitarian problem, so we are aggressively looking for a vaccine, although the vaccine has not been tested, we have already had PD first. Why? Because then we will not get it “, said.

Budi hopes that the vaccines will arrive in Indonesia soon, so that injections can be made to 181 million Indonesians, especially healthcare workers who for 10 months have been fighting at the forefront of managing Covid-19. To date, the vaccine that has reached 3 million doses of artificial Sinovac.

“Amid the good news about the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine in Indonesia, the 3M health protocol continues to be applied by the public without exception, because it is the key to breaking the chain of transmission of Covid-19,” said.