The Indonesian Ministry of Health has stressed that the recently guided spatial clustering of COVID-19 vaccination by President Joko Widodo will take place by prioritizing people in high-risk areas. In view of this, Tarmizi stressed that the spatial clustering exercise would not include all areas in a province, as health workers would focus only on those at the highest risk of contracting coronavirus infection.
For example, if there are only three administrative areas that are at the highest risk for COVID-19 in a province with 19 districts/cities. Vaccine jabs will immediately be prioritized for people in red zones (with extreme infection risk), Tarmizi said, adding that a final decision on the standard operating procedure for the zone-based vaccination program has yet to be taken.
Berbagai langkah sudah kita laksanakan untuk menekan laju penularan Covid-19.
— Joko Widodo (@jokowi) February 5, 2021
Rabu kemarin, saya menggelar pertemuan dengan gubernur DKI Jakarta, DI Yogyakarta, Jawa Barat, Jawa Tengah, dan Bali untuk membahas kebijakan pembatasan agar bisa lebih efektif lagi. pic.twitter.com/HZ11mG64hq
Along with this, President Joko Widodo had said earlier that in order to establish “immediate” herd immunity in the country, spatial clustering of COVID-19 vaccinations should be carried out. Since reporting the country’s first reported cases on March 2, 2020, the Indonesian government has been fighting the global pandemic.
In fact, since January 11, 2021, it has not only imposed restrictions on public operation in the Java and Bali Islands, but has also been carrying out a national vaccination campaign since January 13, 2021. Indonesia’s COVID-19 cases crossed the one million mark on January 26, 2021.
The Health Ministry has roped in the National Police and the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) to perform vaccinations and contact-tracing at the grassroots level in order to reduce the country’s COVID-19 infection rate.
In support of national vaccination and contagion, the National Police has trained 13,500 workers from its health service division as vaccinators and 40,336 others as touch tracers. To support the national vaccination and contact-tracing scheme, the National Police has been training 13,500 workers from its health service division as vaccinators and 40,336 others as contact-tracers. In addition, 40,336 police officers have been prepared to help the government’s grassroots contact-tracing programs around the country to track and identify individuals that may be spread or infected with the disease.
Morever, Prabowo also ordered his men to work closely with their Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) counterparts and health workers to crack the COVID-19 transmission chain.
