Overcoming Constraints on Vaccine Distribution

KOMPAS/KRISTIAN OKA PRASETYADI

Petugas mengangkat kotak-kotak penyimpan vaksin Covid-19 bermerk CoronaVac buatan Sinovac, Officials lift a box of Covid-19 vaccines produced by Chinese company Sinovac, which will be kept at a cold storage facility at the North Sulawesi Health Office in Manado, Tuesday (12/1/2021). The delivery of 8,760 doses of the vaccine followed the shipment of 15,000 doses to the city last week for the first phase of the vaccination for 22,110 health workers in North Sulawesi.

The distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to several regions is still faced with constraints. In fact, mass vaccination as an attempt to overcome the pandemic is scheduled to commence on Wednesday.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Mass vaccination as one of the endeavors to control the Covid-19 pandemic in the country will begin on Wednesday (13/1/2021), President Joko Widodo will be the first person to receive a Covid-19 vaccine injection.

However, the capacity of vaccine cold-chain storage in some regions is still limited. The vaccine cold chain is important to maintain the quality of vaccines to be used. Unless immediately solved, this can hamper the country’s Covid-19 vaccination drive.

Also read: MUI: Sinovac\'s Covid-19 Vaccine is Halal

“Tomorrow morning (today) is the first vaccine injection for the President We’ve made preparations and have coordinated with the Health Ministry to arrange vaccination procedures,” said Protocol, Press and Media Deputy of the Presidential Secretariat Bey T. Machmudin via a short message on Tuesday (12/1).

This total will be increased by 1.8 million vaccine doses to be given to 1.48 million healthcare workers who will be the prioritized vaccine recipients in the first period.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin at a meeting with Commission IX of the House of Representatives in Jakarta yesterday stated that 1.2 million doses of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine had been distributed to 34 provinces. This total will be increased by 1.8 million vaccine doses to be given to 1.48 million healthcare workers who will be the prioritized vaccine recipients in the first period.

BIRO PRES SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN/KRIS

A total of 15 million doses of raw materials to produce COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech arrive at Indonesia\'s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Tuesday.

“Our vaccine cold-chain distribution networks are not complete. Two provinces aren’t ready, which are North Sumatra and South Sumatra, where cold-chain storage capacity isn’t adequate yet, so we can only deliver a portion (of the vaccines),” he said.

This could hamper further stages of vaccination, especially when higher targets of inoculation are due. As planned, in the initial period, which is January-April 2021, vaccine shots will involve 1.48 million healthcare workers, 17.4 million public officers and 21.5 million elderly people. In the second period of April 2021-March 2022, vaccination will cover 63.9 million vulnerable people in regions with a high infection risk and 77.2 million other people based on the approach to transmission clusters.

Also read: Transmission Control Determines Vaccination Success

“It’s only 1.2 million (doses) when constraints are already faced, let alone 1.8 million (doses) to be sent later followed by 17 million (doses), the pressure will be greater. I ask colleagues to communicate more frequently with regions in connection with the storage capacity,” said Budi.

In the inoculation against Covid-19, cooperation with various parties is also undertaken to work out a single data system of Covid-19 vaccination. This system is expected to integrate all vaccination data by digital means, ranging from vaccine recipient priority filtering, registration via Whatsapp, vaccination, to the granting of digital certificates of vaccination.

ARSIP DINKES BANJARMASIN

An official shows a refrigerator to be used to store vaccines at Kardinah public hospital in Tegal city, Central Java, on Monday (12/1/2021). The refrigerator can store up to 200 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

President Director of PT Bio Farma (Persero) Honesti Basyir indicated that various ways were sought to ensure smooth distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. Bio Farma has designed a Covid-19 vaccination monitoring application covering fabrication, distribution and vaccine reception.

Head of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) Penny K. Lukito affirmed that Covid-19 vaccination would continue to be monitored although the emergency use authorization had been issued.

Regional preparedness

In a number of regions, including Central Java, South Sumatra and Lampung, Covid-19 vaccine doses are ready to be injected to healthcare workers. A total of 62,560 vaccine doses are in the storehouse of the Central Java Health Office, Semarang city, for the inoculation of healthcare workers in Semarang city and regency as well as Solo.

KOMPAS/KRISTI DWI UTAMI

The community health center (Puskesmas) in Cilincing subdistrict, North Jakarta conducts a COVID-19 vaccination simulation on Tuesday (12/1/2021). The simulation includes registration, screening or health examinations, vaccination and post-vaccination observation. The observation lasts 30 minutes to see if there are any side effects after a person receives the vaccine. The government plans to begin the Covid-19 vaccination program on 13 Jan, 2021. President Joko Widodo will be the first person to be injected with the Covid-19 vaccine.

In Southeast Sulawesi, the number of healthcare workers as first-stage vaccine recipients is being recorded. These recipients have to undergo data checking by the Health Ministry. Acting Head of the Southeast Sulawesi Health Office, Usnia, said vaccine doses were distributed to Kendari and Konawe.

Also read: The Hardest Step When the Cases Increase Rapidly

Head of the Central Kalimantan Health Office, Suyuti Syamsul, said Sinovac vaccine doses had been distributed to 14 regencies/cities in Central Kalimantan. Their totals are adjusted to the numbers of healthcare workers as prioritized vaccine recipients.

East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said her administration would intensify the execution of vaccination and educate vaccine recipients.

The East Java provincial administration prioritizes its first vaccination in Greater Surabaya, covering Surabaya, Sidoarjo and Gresik. Preparations include locations of vaccination, places of storage, inoculators and lists of vaccine recipients. East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa said her administration would intensify the execution of vaccination and educate vaccine recipients.

Health surveillance

Budi said rapid intervention should be done to anticipate any spike in new Covid-19 cases as an impact of Christmas and New Year holidays. The highest case increase is predicted to occur in the final week of January 2021. Apart from the addition of hospital beds, public health surveillance will be stepped up for the control of infection.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

An official shows a vaccine carrier during a Covid-19 vaccination simulation at the Community Health Center (Puskesmas) in Talun, Cirebon regency, West Java on Wednesday (6/1/2021). A total of 60 community health centers in Cirebon have prepared vaccine storage and a number of vaccine carriers.

The enhancement of public health surveillance will be carried out by tightening case examination and contact tracing, isolation and Covid-19 data management. The efforts to be made include increasing regency/city access in PCR machine procurement, furnishing all community health center with antigen rapid test equipment, testing all close contacts, raising the number of tracers to 80,500 and integrating the surveillance information system.

The fastest way of increasing hospital rooms is by converting the existing beds. “We ask hospitals under the Health Ministry to raise their capacity from the approximately 20 percent capacity for Covid-19 patients to 30-40 percent. So we can add 1,400 beds,” he added. (NTA/TAN/NIK/RAM/ VIO/JAL/JUM/ FRN/ DIT/ IDO)

(This article was translated by Aris Prawira).

(The captions were translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi).