Illustration: COVID-19 vaccine ready to be injected. (Image via The Jakarta Post)

Jokowi wants COVID-19 vaccine plan done in 2 weeks

In order to ensure safe and sound production of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), ordered his ministers and officials on Monday to draft a detailed novel coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine production plan no later than two weeks from now. The order was given during an online COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery meeting, broadcast on Presidential Secretary's Official Youtube account.

"I ask for a vaccination plan to be formulated with its detail as early as possible two weeks from now," said Jokowi in his opening address.

The plan will cover from vaccination schedule, venues, and to who will get the vaccine first hand. Jokowi asserted that the plan should be neatly constructed so that when the vaccines are produced, it will be immediately distributed to the Indonesian people in need.

"It [the plan] has to be carefully constructed so that the implementation will not meet any hurdle," added Jokowi.

Previously, Jokowi projected that the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine will be a huge game-changer in Indonesia's war against the pandemic starting in late 2019. Therefore, Jokowi's administration targeted the injection could start in early 2021. The Indonesian government is also developing its own vaccine. Independently, Indonesia is developing vaccines through LBME Eijkman. 

Indonesia also is also cooperating with other foreign entities to accelerate vaccine production. PT Bio Farma is partnering with Sinovac, testing its vaccine in the third stage, and G42, a healthcare technology company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Source: https://bit.ly/2HvrnRW