Indonesia plans to provide COVID-19 vaccines to its people free of charge by 2021, Chairman of the COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee Erick Thohir said on 27 August.

Illustrative image (Source: Antaranews)

Erick Thohir said there will be 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2020 obtained from the UAE’s G42 and China’s Sinovac.

He explained that the plan is to make free vaccines available to the public by utilising the state budget and using the national health care system (BPJS) data as the basis for vaccine administration.

To reduce the burden on the state budget, which is experiencing a widening deficit, he asked those who can afford it to pay for the vaccines independently.

He added that his committee is also continuing to prioritise the ongoing development of the Red and White vaccine.

Source: VNA