West Papua No. 1 News Portal | Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi – Jayapura municipality administration recorded as of Wednesday, Jan. 27, only 308 health workers or roughly 10 percent of the 3,464 target had been vaccinated with Sinovac shots since the kick off of the vaccination drive in the province on Jan. 15.
“We’re investigating what causes the delay,” said Deputy Mayor Rustan Saru on Wednesday. He said the vaccines were given to health workers at nine hospitals, 13 community health centers, and one reproductive health facility in Jayapura.
He said the city would target at least one health facility had to vaccinate at least 10 people at one time so Jayapura could meet the target of completing the vaccination in two months.
“We have received 7,560 doses of Sinovac vaccines. Health workers are the first priority so they would work in safety and comfort because they are the frontliners,” he went on. Each person would get 1 ml of Sinovac vaccine, given twice at 0.5 ml each.
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Rustan said he hoped all the medical workers in Jayapura would not hesitate to get vaccinated to boost trust among the people.
Jayapura Mayor Benhur Tomi Mano called on the health workers to campaign for the vaccines, saying that the vaccines were safe.
On Jan. 15, 16 Papua province officials got vaccinated to mark the beginning of the vaccination drive in the province. One of the recipients was the Cenderawasih Military Command chief Maj. Gen. Ignatius Yogo Triyono. He said he was fine after getting the vaccine. “It was like when I got smallpox vaccine, I feel a little sore in the arm muscle,” Yogo said.
Yogo called on the people not to believe misinformation on Covid-19 vaccine circulating in the social media.
The head of Papua Health Agency, Robby Kayame, said he targeted that 75 percent of population in Papua province would get Covid-19 vaccines.
For the first priority, the health workers, the province hoped to vaccinate 7,100 people for the first batch that is slated to complete in April 2021.
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The government is trying hard to lower the vaccine hesitancy rate among the people across Indonesia. Some people in Jayapura were also hesitating.
Katrin, a university student, said she was worried about the side effect of the vaccines. She said each person would react differently to the vaccines. She was also worried that even though she got vaccinated, she could still get infected. She said vaccines should be given to those who want to get the shot and should not be forced.
Katrin said the health protocol—washing hands, wearing face mask, keeping physical distance—is the best way to avoid Covid-19 spread.
Another resident, Fardan, said he had his doubts even though he knew that the government’s Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) had declared that the vaccine was safe.
“Let the vaccination for the government and civil servants run for a while, to build trust among the people,” he said.
BPOM had announced that the efficacy rate of the Sinovac vaccines, the first vaccines to arrive in Indonesia among the others the government ordered, was at 65.3 percent.
Covid-19 cases in Jayapura had yet to show any signs of declining. Deputy Mayor Rustan said compared to December, January saw more cases, even doubled the ones in January. “In December 2020, we saw 18 new people were positive of Covid-19, but in January this year, we see up to 30 people,” he said on Wednesday, Jan. 27.
He said the increase were caused by, among others, family meetings or parties for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.
According to the central government’s website, accumulation of Covid-19 cases in Papua province reached 14,939 cases or 1.5 percent of total national cases, which stood at over 1 million cases in January.
