A medical worker injects a Surabya resident with COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo: AFP/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia will commenceadministering the third dose or booster shot on January 12, 2022, according to Airlangga Hartarto, chairman of the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic RecoveryCommittee (KCP-PEN).
This programme will prioritise the elderly and vulnerablegroups covered by health insurance. The remaining groups will have to pay for the booster shots if they need to get them.
The booster vaccination programme uses vaccines of the sameor different types as those used in the first and the second shots, Airlanggasaid while visiting a vaccination centre in West Jakarta province. He also said that the use of vaccines has been recommended by the Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ITAGI).
Indonesia's Foodand Drug Authority (BPOM) is expected to issue an emergency use authorisation for the booster vaccines early next year. They include vaccines fromPfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Sinovac and Sinopharm.
Indonesialaunched a national vaccination programme against COVID-19 on January 13, 2021, with the goal of providing vaccines to more than 208 million people. As ofDecember 30, more than 160 million people in the country had received thefirst dose, while 113 million people had received the full two shots./.
