JAKARTA – Indonesia has identified groups within society who are set to receive the COVID-19 vaccine soon, with journalists, athletes, and civil servants included among them.
The Health Ministry said the second phase of vaccinations — set to follow immediately after the first phase for health workers — will mostly target groups in the public service sector.
“These include educators, market vendors, religious figures, people’s representatives, state officials, regional and central civil servants, security personnel, public transportation employees, and athletes,” Siti Nadia Tarmizi, the Health Ministry’s COVID-19 vaccination program spokeswoman, said this morning.
“Journalists and media workers are also included.”
Nadia said the second phase will begin as soon as the ministry receives authorization from the Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM).
The ministry has identified 17,857,157 people to be vaccinated for the second phase, the majority of which consist of educators (5,057,852 people) and market vendors (4,014,232 people). Around 5,000 journalists and 1,175 athletes were also included in the list.
Indonesia began its COVID-19 mass vaccination program in mid-January, with health workers the first in line for jabs. As of Feb. 14, the country has administered the first dose of the CoronaVac vaccine to 1,068,747 people, 425,578 of whom have received their second of the required two doses of the vaccine.
Indonesia aims to vaccinate some 180 million people to reach herd immunity against COVID-19 by early 2022. At the current vaccination rate, Bloomberg has projected that it would take Indonesia at least 10 years to achieve the feat, though the Health Ministry is adamant that the rate will soon pick up.