Coronavirus: Indonesia’s Jokowi to get first vaccine shot in free nationwide roll-out
- President Joko Widodo said he will be inoculated first to show people that Covid-19 vaccines are safe, as the country prepares to offer them for free
- South Korea is scrambling to organise more hospital beds as it reported its highest number of new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began
Jokowi, as he is commonly known, ordered the finance minister to reallocate spending on other matters towards the free vaccines, according to a cabinet secretariat statement.
He will also be the first to be inoculated as a way to show people that the shots are safe. “So there is no longer any reason for people not to get it,” he said.
The country is home to the world’s fourth-largest population, and previously laid out a plan to pay for nearly 74 million doses through its national health coverage, while the rest of its 270 million people would have to shoulder the cost themselves.
The expense is a key concern for Indonesians, with only one-third of those who want to be vaccinated against the virus saying they would be willing to pay for the shots, according to a government survey in September.
