JAKARTA: Coordinating Economic Affairs Minister Airlangga Hartanto highlighted the government’s target to complete the national vaccination programme by the end of 2021.
“The target is that 182 million people can be vaccinated by the end of this year,” Hartanto noted at the 2021 National Disaster Management Coordination Meeting here on Tuesday.
Citing President Joko Widodo’s directive, the minister remarked that 182 million people over 19 years of age will be accorded priority for vaccination.
Hartanto stressed on the importance of vaccination, particularly for healthy people, in order to build herd immunity.
“Meanwhile, people, who are sick, can be given proper treatment. We encourage the adoption of a better standard for treatment nationally,” he stated.
The coordinating minister affirmed that the government will progressively increase the number of people being inoculated in order to achieve herd immunity.
“Today, about 160 thousand people are vaccinated per day. The next target will be increased to around 500 thousand people per day and then raised to one million people per day. This vaccination must also be balanced with the readiness of vaccinators and the availability of vaccines,” Hartanto, concurrently chairman of the Committee for Handling Covid-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN), affirmed.
This year, the health cluster budget in the KPC PEN budget ceiling in 2021 has been raised by nearly 300 percent, from the previous year.
“The budgetary increase translates to the fact that the implementation of 3T (testing, tracing, and treatment) as well as vaccinations, will be included in the budget,” Hartanto pointed out.
The minister further pointed out that the KPC PEN budget for 2021 had reached Rp699.43 trillion, or a 21-percent rise, from the realisation of Rp579 trillion during the last year.
The KPC PEN budget comprises Rp176.40 trillion for the health budget and Rp157.41 trillion for social protection.
Furthermore, Rp184.83 trillion is budgeted to support micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and corporations; Rp122.42 trillion for priority programmes; and Rp58.47 trillion for business incentives.
“This year, we raise the budget to close to Rp700 trillion,” the minister emphasised.
