Jessica Ester, Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said Indonesia has pocketed more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that are sufficient for the next three months.

"Because we move early together and because our team is quite solid, we don't face a shortage of vaccines to date," said Retno in a webinar on heroes of vaccines held by Tempo on Tuesday, December 28.

She assessed that the stock of Indonesia's COVID-19 vaccine is sufficient and must be accelerated to increase the percentage of vaccinated people given that vaccination is one of the keys to quitting the pandemic.

Indonesia, she added, is fortunate because it could procure vaccines, both commercially and free from the COVAX Facility and friendly countries. "We can do vaccinations well too," Retno added.

In the webinar, she explained that vaccines and vaccinations are two different things. In a number of countries, especially developing and less developed nations, the vaccine is available yet they faced difficulties in carrying out vaccination as it is related to the country's infrastructure and capacity.

Thus, Retno opined that apart from fighting for itself, Indonesia must also voice equality in access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1544318/indonesias-covid-19-vaccine-stocks-sufficient-for-next-3-month