Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced on Monday that Indonesia's vaccination drive had topped 281 million doses, managing to cover more than half of the country's 208 million population aged 12 and above with two doses of vaccine.
Indonesia had set the goal of administering 280 million vaccine doses by the end of 2021.
"[As of] this morning, we have reached 281,299,690 doses. Injecting [vaccine] 280 million times was no easy task, given our geographical conditions. We had to travel by boats, motorcycle, and even on foot to climb mountains to [deliver the Covid-19 jabs]," Jokowi said in Jakarta on Monday.
Initially, the government aimed to vaccinate 208.2 million people in the country. So far, about 79.6 percent of the targeted population have received their first dose. Indonesia's second-dose vaccination coverage has also reached 54.8 percent, according to Jokowi.
The government began administering vaccines for children aged between 6 to 11 years old last month, adding around 26.5 million children to the target population.
"Our children vaccination have reached 3.8 million," he said.
As many as 27 provinces have also met the 70 percent first-dose target, according to Jokowi.
He attributed these achievements to the hard work and gotong-royong between the government and private sector, referring to the Indonesian term for mutual cooperation.
He said that it has become inseparable from Indonesia's strategy in battling the Covid-19 pandemic.
The president also looked back on when Indonesia struggled against the Covid-19 crisis in mid-July 2021.
He added, "our daily tally hit 56,000 cases back in mid-July. I remember those times were frightening because hospital hallways and yards were full of Covid-19 patients."
But the Covid-19 pandemic in the country has now significantly slowed down. Indonesia reported 174 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday – a drastic drop from the wave of infections in mid-July last year.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-tops-281-million-covid19-vaccine-dose