Lenny Tristia Tambun, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has set a goal of administering 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine per day starting on Saturday, with the president aiming to double the number by August.

The move to drastically ramp up vaccination came amid a dramatic surge in newly cases, which saw the country pass 20,000 cases in a single day for the first time since the outbreak began.

The record number in daily cases on Thursday puts Indonesia among the top five countries with the highest daily number of cases after Brazil, India, Columbia and Argentina, according to statistics website Worldometer.

Covid-19 cases in Indonesia have increased by more than 42 percent during the past week compared to a week earlier.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered the National Police and the Indonesian Military to support the national vaccination drive and conduct their own program alongside that of the Health Ministry.

"I do hope that the goal of administering 1 million vaccine doses across the country becomes reality from today until July," the president said when inspecting a makeshift vaccination site on a square near the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

"Starting August, we double the target from the current number."

The 1 million doses campaign kicked off across the country where police stations and military posts begin opening vaccination sites to support ongoing program by health authorities and local governments.

Jokowi also held a video conference with a number of provincial police chiefs discussing the program.

Central Java Police Chief Insp. Gen. Ahmad Luthfi told the president his team had distributed 141,000 doses across the province, with the support of nearly 5,500 vaccinators from the provincial health department, the police and the military command.

"Given the growing enthusiasm to the program, I suggest that Central Java be given more doses of the vaccine," the officer told Jokowi.

The president heard a similar request from other provinces.

At least 25.5 million people in the country have received a single dose of the vaccine, while nearly 13 million people have been fully vaccinated since the campaign began on January 13. Indonesia has never reached a million doses in a single day before.

The government targets to fully vaccinate 181.5 million citizens, or 70 percent of the population, by March 2022.

A majority of the Covid-19 vaccine distributed in Indonesia is supplied by China's Sinovac Biotech, which also licenses state-run pharmaceutical company Bio Farma to produce the vaccine at its factory in Bandung, West Java.

Bio Farma said earlier this week it has produced 65.5 million Sinovac doses and released 51.4 million.

Southeast Asia's biggest country also has received 8.2 million doses of UK's AstraZeneca vaccine through UN-approved scheme Covax.

In addition, an initiative by private companies has procured at least 2 million doses of vaccine produced by China's Sinopharm.

Indonesia has recorded 2.07 million Covid-19 cases including 56,371 deaths as of Friday.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-begins-campaign-of-1-million-covid19-vaccine-dose