Retno Marsudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs revealed that the arrival of 500,000 AstraZeneca vaccines is the first shipment from the Australian Government.
The Australian Government plans to send 2.5 million doses of vaccine in 2021 for the Indonesian people through a bilateral mechanism. Not only that, through UNICEF, the Australian Government has also committed to providing support for vaccines procurement for Indonesia worth AUD 77.1 million.
Vaccine cooperation is one of the topics of discussion between Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi and Australian Foreign Minister, Marise Payne.
It is known, Indonesia and Australia are planning to hold a 2+2 meeting in the near future. Cooperation in handling Covid-19 is also carried out at the highest leadership level of the two countries.
On the same occasion, HE Penny Williams, the Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, said that he was pleased with the cooperation between the two countries in dealing with and starting to recover from the Covid-19 condition.
Quoted from CNN Indonesia, Indonesia is currently ranked 7th in the country with the highest number of doses in the world. Retno revealed that the government will continue to strive to meet the needs of vaccine doses for the community.
The government asks for cooperation from the community to support the vaccination program and maintain health protocols. This is done to speed up the handling of Covid-19.
“Therefore, let’s vaccinate, and continue to obey health protocols,”
SAID FOREIGN MINISTER RETNO AS REPORTED BY CNN INDONESIA.
WHO has set a global vaccination target of at least 10% of each country’s population by the end of this month. Then at the end of 2021 with a target of 40 percent of the population of each country and 70 percent of the population of each country by mid-2022.
The latest report shows that 140 countries have vaccinated 10 percent of their citizens, including Indonesia.