Budiarti Utami Putri, Jakarta – The civil coalition for proper healthcare access suspected that the government was more concerned about the economy than the health sector in containing the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the indications was that the government insisted on holding individually-paid vaccination.
Representative of the Coalition from the volunteer group Lapor Covid-19, Amanda Tan, opined that from the beginning, the Covid-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN) prioritized the economic issues.
"KPC-PEN is established to balance the public health and economic recovery, but along its way, it prioritizes the economy," said Amanda on Wednesday, July 14.
She mentioned that the government policies tend to set aside health issues before the explosion of cases due to the Delta variant, such as extending the operating hours of shopping centers which surely led to high people's mobility and allowing the operation of big construction projects that brought in foreign workers.
Amanda also argued that State-Owned Enterprises should be asked to help increase the testing and contact tracing rather than being the provider of the self-paid Covid-19 vaccine program.
Another member of the civil coalition from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) Muhammad Isnur said he was worried that the government attempted to reap profit through the self-paid vaccination program.
Isnur said it was not a new thing that the government's program led to inappropriate practices. He cited examples, the lobster seed export and the Covid-19 social assistance that involved two ministers to court.