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JAKARTA: Indonesia may allow companies to purchase their own COVID-19 vaccines, the country’s health minister said on Thursday (Jan 14), when an influential business chamber called for members to be able to vaccinate staff or sell vaccines to the public.
The Southeast Asian country launched a mass immunization campaign targeting more than 180 million people this week to help tackle one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in Asia.
READ: President Jokowi gets Sinovac jab to officially launch Indonesia’s COVID-19 vaccination program
Medical and security personnel are first in line to receive the vaccine, but Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that companies in parliament can obtain and vaccinate their staff and thus reduce the burden on the state.
“It should not start now, but later, after the government has provided mandatory vaccinations for public and health workers,” he said, noting that a final decision had not been made and that the authorities wanted to prevent them from being considered. priority for the rich.
Indonesia currently buys and distributes vaccines for free at an estimated cost of about $ 5.3 billion.
READ: Indonesian Clerics Declare Sinovac COVID-19 Vaccine Halal
The head of Indonesia’s chamber of commerce told Reuters that he had requested that some companies be allowed to import approved vaccines or buy government supplies to immunize staff or for sale.
“It’s like going to Disneyland … if you want to go faster, there is a priority pass, but you have to pay more,” said Rosan Roeslani, adding that the companies had already established links with vaccine producers such as Russia’s Sputnik V, as well as others approved by the World Health Organization.
He denied that it was a privilege for the rich, as the cost per injection could be below the current price of a private COVID-19 test.
READ: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinovac: A Look at Three Key COVID-19 Vaccines
Jahja Setiaatmadja, CEO of one of Indonesia’s largest lenders, Bank Central Asia, said that if the plan is approved, the bank would like to purchase vaccines for staff.
Marsha Dyas, a 30-year-old Jakarta resident, also welcomed the idea of being able to purchase a specific vaccine from a supplier. But Andreas Harsono, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Indonesia, warned that “a private vaccination program will create the risk that the poorest and most vulnerable on the outer islands will be trampled on in the vaccine stampede.”
