The Health Ministry is aiming to inoculate more than 20 percent of the total residents in each province against COVID-19 by the end of this month.

“President Joko Widodo has instructed that by the end of September everything (vaccination) should be above 20 percent,” acting director general of disease prevention and control at the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Currently, only four provinces have reported a vaccination rate below 20 percent of the total regional population, he noted. Those provinces are Lampung, West Sumatra, North Maluku, and Papua, he informed.

“(The vaccination rate in) Lampung is already 18 percent, just a little bit more (is needed to meet the target),” he said.

Indonesia’s global ranking in terms of mass vaccinations has not shifted from sixth place. “For the first dose and the total dose that has been injected, we are still below Japan,” Rondonuwu said.

In Indonesia, the first vaccine dose has been administered to more than 38 percent of the population, or more than 80 million people, he informed.

This is why the vaccination rate in the country is set to reach 50 million doses every five weeks until early October 2021, he said.

“In the first week of September, we have reached 50 million doses. The second dose is more than 22 percent,” he remarked.

So far, daily vaccinations in Indonesia have touched 1.8 million doses, or close to the daily target of 2 million doses per day, Rondonuwu said.

“We have reached 1.9 million last week. Hopefully, today we can record another 2 million of administered doses,” he remarked.

The Health Ministry has continued to make efforts to ramp up daily vaccinations to 2 million doses, he added.

“If we look back, we can break through 2 million doses because it was usually stable at 3-4 million doses per day,” Rondonuwu said.

Source: Antara News