Manokwari, W Papua (ANTARA) - The West Papua provincial government has disclosed that 25,730 frontline public sector workers in the province have received the first and second shots of the COVID-19 vaccine.

 

They are among the 37,660 frontline workers that the provincial administration is targeting to inoculate, West Papua's Health Office head Otto Parorongan said.

 

“Thus, 68 percent of the total number of frontline workers in 13 districts and cities across the province have been inoculated," he informed in Manokwari on Tuesday.

 

The frontline workers who have been vaccinated include civil servants, military and police personnel, traders, journalists, and employees of the banking sector, he said.

 

“We have also intensified our vaccination program for the frontline public sector workers in several areas by using the Sinovac vaccine doses," he added.

 

Indonesia has been striving to win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year.

 

Since the government officially announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020, 1,537,967 people in Indonesia have been infected with the coronavirus.

 

Of the total number, 41,815 patients have succumbed to the infection.

 

To stem the spread of the disease, the government has rolled out a nationwide vaccination program since January 13 this year.

 

As of April 5, 2021, a total of 8,838,081 people have been vaccinated in Indonesia, according to the government's COVID-19 task force.

 

The Health Ministry estimates a time period of 15 months will be required to vaccinate about 70 percent of the country's total population under the national program.

 

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated recently.

 

During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate about 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.

 

Tarmizi noted that the first phase of the government's immunization program has been divided into two periods: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022. (INE)


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EDITED BY INE