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 In an interview with Reuters, President Joko Widodo, commonly known
as Jokowi, said plans were already advanced to distribute the
vaccine across the entire country.
If approval is granted by the country's food and drug agency, known
by its Indonesian acronym BPOM, it will mean Indonesia - with 270
million people, the world's fourth most populous country - will be
among the first in the world to roll out a coronavirus vaccine.
"We expect to start the vaccination process by the end of this year
following a series of tests by BPOM," Jokowi said.
Indonesia has struggled to suppress the coronavirus for months but
the steady rise in infection rates has plateaued in the past few
weeks, according to official figures.
The country has Southeast Asia's largest coronavirus caseload with
about 15,000 deaths and 450,000 infections although health experts
warn those numbers are likely to be higher due to low testing rates.
"We will put pressure on the cases so they can stay flat and then we
will hit it with the vaccines," Jokowi told Reuters at the
presidential palace.
On Friday afternoon, after Reuters' interview with Jokowi, Indonesia
posted a record daily number of infections at 5,444, well above the
daily average of fewer than 3,500 cases over the past two weeks.
Jokowi added that ensuring the safety of the vaccine was a priority,
and that health workers, police and the military would be first in
line when the vaccination campaign begins.
At a ministerial roundtable after the Jokowi interview, Coordinating
Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan said
the government expects BPOM approval in the first week of December
and for Indonesia to "begin vaccinating" two weeks later.
Vaccines produced by China's Sinovac <SVA.O> and Sinopharm are
slated to be used in the early stages of the campaign. This year,
the companies will provide 18 million vaccines, including 15 million
that will be manufactured by Indonesia's state-owned pharmaceutical
company Bio Farma.
All up, Indonesia has deals for more than 250 million doses until
the end of 2021. This includes 30 million produced by the U.S.
company Novavax <NVAX.O>, co-ordinating minister for the economy,
Airlangga Hartarto told Reuters.
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ECONOMIC BOOST
Over the past two quarters, Indonesia's economy has contracted at a slower pace
than other countries in the region and Jokowi said the economic trend was
"encouraging".
"Hopefully, this (vaccination campaign) will give a positive economic impact.
This is very important to us."
He said the passage of a huge job creation bill that streamlined 79 existing
laws to boost investment, spur business activity and drive employment was a
"major structural reform" that would further add impetus to the economy.
Implementation of the reforms package, known as the Omnibus law, would be
completed by the end of the year, Jokowi said.
When the bill was passed, there were widespread protests from workers, students
and environmentalists and several trade unions have challenged the law in the
Constitutional Court.
Such activism is normal in a democracy, the president said, adding that he was
not worried about judicial review petitions against the new law.
The protests have petered out in recent weeks, and Jokowi said the government
has reached out to unions and large Islamic organisations to convince them of
the benefits of the Omnibus laws.
"The government of Indonesia is strongly committed to carrying out structural
reforms and accelerating the economic transformation ... by enacting the Job
Creation law," he said.
(This story corrects to remove incorrect Reuters Instrument Code in text and
metadata)
(Reporting by Tom Allard, Stanley Widianto and Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Sam
Holmes)
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