The COVID-19 vaccination plan is expected to be completed in the next two weeks. Even though a vaccine will be developed, efforts to increase testing, contract tracing and isolation of patients must continue.
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AHMAD ARIF/ANITA YOSSIHARA
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Kompas
Indonesian President Joko Widodo wearing a protective mask and face shield talks as he inspects the third phase trial for COVID-19 vaccine in Bandung, Indonesia, August 11, 2020.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has asked the COVID-19 handling and national economic recovery task force to immediately draft a detailed plan for COVID-19 vaccination. Apart from determining the time to administer the vaccine, the plan must also include a list of locations for administering the vaccine, administrators and vaccine recipients.
“I ask that the vaccination [policy] be laid out in detail over the next two weeks: when it will start, where it will take place, who will do it and who will be vaccinated first. Everything needs to be planned out well, so that once the vaccine is available, [the plan] only needs to be implemented,” said the President in a nonpublic virtual meeting discussing the report of the COVID-19 handling and national economic recovery task force in Jakarta on Monday (28/9/2020).
Apart from domestic efforts to develop a vaccine, the government is also cooperating with a number of countries, including China, South Korea and the United Kingdom, to develop vaccines. With China, vaccines are being developed with Sinovac, Sinopharm and G42.
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi revealed that numerous ways were being pursued to provide vaccines on time, one of which was to monitor the results of the phase three clinical trial of the Sinovac vaccine candidate in Bandung, West Java.
“Based on what the clinical trial team have said, trials are still underway, and there have been no reports of severe side effects yet. Essentially, the trials are running smoothly and will yield good results,” said Retno.
The government is also monitoring Biofarma’s readiness to mass-produce the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac. Biofarma will also be producing other vaccines, such as the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the result of multilateral cooperation. Thus, Biofarma’s production capacity has been increased from 100 million to 250 million doses of vaccine per year.
Syringes of SARS CoV-2 Vaccine for COVID-19 produced by SinoVac are displayed during a media tour of its factory in Beijing on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020. A Chinese health official said Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, that the country\'s annual production capacity for coronavirus vaccines will top 1 billion doses next year, following an aggressive government support program for construction of new factories.
The Sinovac vaccine is being developed and produced in careful cooperation with China. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) recently visited Beijing to witness firsthand the quality of the vaccine developed by Sinovac. “This reflects our carefulness in preparing the vaccine to be administered in Indonesia,” Retno said.
Apart from Sinovac, the government is also in discussions with Chinese companies Sinopharm and G24, both of which are also developing COVID-19 vaccines. Discussions have also been held with the United Arab Emirates as clinical trials for two vaccines are being carried out there. “[Discussions] include data to ensure the safety, efficacy and quality of the vaccines,” he said.
Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto added that the government had prepared a presidential regulation on the roadmap for the vaccine. A technical team for the preparation of the vaccination roadmap has already been formed. Likewise, vaccination guidelines, including a list of prioritized recipients, is also being prepared.
Airlangga explained that the vaccine administering scheme was being finalized. In accordance with the President’s direction, doctors and health workers who are at the forefront of COVID-19 handling will be prioritized for vaccination.
Controlling transmission
Amid preparations for the provision of a vaccine, efforts to contain COVID-19 transmission must continue through improved testing, tracing and isolating.
“What is most urgent at the moment is to control the outbreak, so that it does not continue to spread. This step has been taken by other countries, such as New Zealand and Taiwan, which have proven able to control the outbreak,” said Indonesian epidemiologist Dicky Budiman from Griffith University, Australia.
According to Dicky, testing, tracing and isolation were the basic steps in breaking the chain of transmission. The World Health Organization (WHO) also said that a vaccine was not a ‘silver bullet’ that would stop the pandemic. Learning from past pandemics, testing, tracing and isolation still need to be implemented even in the presence of a vaccine.
WANG ZHAO/AFP
An engineer works in the general laboratory during a media tour of a new factory built to produce a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at Sinovac, one of 11 Chinese companies approved to carry out clinical trials of potential coronavirus vaccines, in Beijing on September 24, 2020.
“I am worried that there is a perception that will lead to a lack of seriousness in carrying out massive tests. Having a high number of [officially confirmed] cases is not a bad thing if we have the right strategy. What is more dangerous is having an infected person unidentified, this will trigger a surge in hospital cases and deaths,” he added.
According to data from the COVID-19 response task force, cases and deaths in Indonesia continue to rise. On Monday (28/9), there were an additional 3,509 cases, bringing the nation’s total tally to 278,722. The number of deaths has increased by 87 people, bringing the toll to 10,473 deaths.
This continuous rise in cases, however, has not yet been followed by an increase in testing, which still averages fewer than 30,000 people per day. According to the WHO, Indonesia’s average testing rate is still only half the minimum standard of 1 per 1,000 per week. So far, only four provinces achieve the minimum number of tests, namely Jakarta, Yogyakarta, West Sumatra and Papua.
The WHO report from last week also notes that not a single province in Java had shown a decline of at least 50 percent in the three weeks since the last peak. Jakarta and Central Java, for example, had seen a decrease in cases of less than 50 percent since the last peak from 7-13 September. In Banten, on the other hand, cases have almost doubled in the past week.
In addition to the lack of testing, tracing and isolation, the high risk of transmission in Indonesia is also influenced by citizen’s lack of adherence to health protocols. A survey by the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) held from 7-14 September showed that 17 percent of 90,967 respondents stated that it was very unlikely or impossible to contract COVID-19, 19.3 percent said that they were likely to contract the virus, 34.3 percent said it was very likely, and 29.4 percent believed they might have already contracted the disease.
“We need to strengthen people’s understanding of COVID-19. Anyone is at risk of contracting COVID-19,” said BPS head Suhariyanto.
Meanwhile, a study on contact tracing by Limmathurotsakul from Mahidol University in Thailand and Oxford University’s Center for Tropical Medicine and Global Health in the UK proved the effectiveness of mask use, handwashing and physical distancing in Thailand.
