Indonesia ramps up vaccine drive amid obstacles

Indonesia has ramped up its national vaccination programme and aims to administer 50 million doses a month from next month.

But the wide disparity in distribution across the sprawling archipelago remains a big obstacle.

Up to 57.7 per cent of the population in the capital Jakarta have been fully vaccinated, but only 7.38 per cent in Lampung province, at the southern tip of Sumatra, have received the mandatory two doses - the lowest rate nationwide.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has encouraged regional leaders to distribute available vaccine stocks across cities and regencies to speed up vaccinations, instead of holding on to supplies for fear of shortages.

He gave the assurance that the country would have sufficient stocks, with around 80 million doses expected to arrive next month. Indonesia is also expecting 19.5 million doses from foreign suppliers to be delivered this week and another 13 million next week.

"We will surely distribute quite a lot this week and next week. We're asking regional administrations to help distribute smoothly to final destinations in cities and regencies," Mr Budi said.

The country administered the first 50 million doses early last month, 25 weeks after the launch of the nationwide vaccine roll-out in mid-January.

Another 50 million doses should be administered by the end of this month, just eight weeks after the first target was met. This will be further ramped up to 50 million next month.

"If it takes four weeks, or one month, for 50 million doses, we will need to offer 1.3 million to 1.4 million doses daily," Mr Budi said.

"If in the next four months we can achieve 50 million doses each month, we will achieve 300 million doses by the end of this year, which is around 70 per cent of our target. If we can hit 300 million by the year end, it's a good target."

The world's fourth-most populous nation seeks to inoculate 208.3 million, or 77.1 per cent of its population, by January. It had dispensed 92.8 million doses as at yesterday, said the Health Ministry.

Those fully vaccinated stood at 33.4 million - 16 per cent of the overall targeted population.

Supply issues, however, must be resolved if the ambitious targets are to be met. A number of cities and regions across some provinces, such as Aceh, Bangka Belitung Islands, West Java, East Java and East Nusa Tenggara, have reported little or no vaccine stocks, prompting the local authorities to slow down or halt vaccinations. This is despite the fact that some have reported the most cases of the more transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus.

In Aceh, two regencies halted inoculation for a few days last month, and the province's daily average fell to its lowest level of 7,000 doses a day, down from between 10,000 and 15,000 daily. But the province received more than 70,000 doses this week - a record high - up from between 36,000 and 45,000 in the previous weeks.

"Now we must persuade people to get their jabs again. It's not easy to maintain their enthusiasm," said Mr Iman Murahman, head of disease prevention and control division at Aceh Health Agency.

Health Ministry acting pharmaceutical and medical equipment director-general Arianti Anaya acknowledged some regions reported low vaccine stocks last month due to a shortage at the national level, and said what was available was prioritised for Java and Bali islands.