Jakarta – Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has offered free vaccination against Covid-19 for its passengers on Wednesday in a move that would entice more people to get immunized while at the same time helped the government's Covid-19 vaccination program.
"To support the Indonesian government's program to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection, Garuda Indonesia provides free Covid-19 vaccinations for Garuda Indonesia passengers departing from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)," the airline wrote on its website on Wednesday.
Garuda Indonesia said the program has started on Wednesday and would run until further notice.
The vaccine recipients must be Garuda Indonesia passengers who will fly from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on the same day of their vaccination.
They must be 18 years or older, have a national ID card (KTP) – needed for the government's centralized vaccination registry – and haven't checked in for the flight at the time of vaccination registration.
Garuda Indonesia said it would also serve passengers taking their second dose of vaccination, as long as it has been at least 28 days from their first dose shot, proven by a vaccination certificate that the passengers must not fail to show to the airline.
The Garuda Indonesia medical team would check passengers' health to ensure no conditions unsuitable for receiving Covid-19 vaccination. The airline said it uses Coronavac, a vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, for the program.
There are 28.3 million Indonesians who have received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, or 10.5 percent of the country's total population.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo aimed for the country to inject at least 1 million people per day starting next month, before increasing it to 2 million people per day in August. Since the vaccination began in January, the country has only managed to vaccine more than a million people a day twice, on last Sunday and Tuesday.