Indonesia Starts To Run “Vaksinasi Gotong Royong” Program

The business world in Indonesia has recently participated in helping the government of the Republic of Indonesia to accelerate the coverage of Covid-19 vaccinations to achieve Herd Immunity, through the “Vaksinasi Gotong Royong” (VGR)* program. This VGR has been started since May 18, 2021, which was given to a number of employees in 18 companies located in Jababeka.

In accordance with the provisions in the Regulation of the Minister of Health (Permenkes) Number 10 of 2021, concerning the implementation of vaccinations in the context of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, those who can get the (VGR) include:

1. Employees, families and other individuals related to the family of a legal entity/business entity are the target recipients of the mutual cooperation vaccination. Other related individuals in the family are individuals who live with or work with the family concerned.
2. Communities around the location of activities of legal entities / business entities as part of social responsibility as targets for mutual cooperation vaccination recipients.
3. Foreign citizens who are employees of a legal entity / business entity can participate as targets for mutual cooperation vaccination recipients.

The type of vaccine used

The vaccine that is used in this program,must be different from the vaccine that is being used in the government program .For the vaccination program that runs from January 2021 to June 2021, using the Covid-19 vaccine from Sinovac, and AstraZeneca. 

For the VGR program, it uses a vaccine from Sinopharm, and will soon follow a Vaccine from Cansino or other types of vaccines. The difference in vaccine manufacturers in these two programs is intended to avoid a shortage in one type of vaccination program.

The Ministry of Health allows the use of the same type of Covid-19 vaccine between the government vaccination program and the Gotong Royong vaccination, provided that the type of Covid-19 vaccine for program vaccination is obtained from grants, donations, or gifts from the community or other countries.

Sinopharm

Covid-19 vaccine has been declared safe by the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM). BPOM itself has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Sinopharm vaccine on April 29, 2021. For vaccine procurement, the government has signed a contract to procure 7.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, with the number of vaccines available until the 3rd week of June 2021 is 2.8 million doses.

CanSino

The Vaccine is one of two types of vaccines that have been approved for use in the VGR program initiated by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) with a total of 5 million doses.

Vaccine Distribution

The distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine in the VGR program is carried out by Bio Farma to Health Service Facilities, which are appointed by a business entity or in collaboration with a third party (pharmaceutical wholesaler) who has a certificate of Good Distribution Practice (CDOB) from the National Food and Drug Agency (Badan POM).

In other words, the Health Service Facility appointed by the Business Entity must meet the requirements in the implementation of the vaccination program, such as having an adequate vaccine storage area, in accordance with the criteria issued by Bio Farma.

If the business entity does not have Health Facilities, then Bio Farma can appoint Health Facilities that are within the Holding of Pharmaceutical SOEs.

*Gotong Royong : is an Indonesian term for working together to achieve a coveted result. This term comes from the Javanese words gotong which means "to lift" and royong which means "together".