JAKARTA, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia will provide COVID-19 vaccines for 181.5 million residents next year in order to achieve herd immunity and break the chain of coronavirus transmissions in the Southeast Asian country, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Tuesday.

In explaining the figure at a virtual press briefing, he said, "Apart from those who have comorbidities, have been infected with COVID-19, and pregnant women, there are still 181.5 million people."

According to him, there are 269 million people living in Indonesia currently, with 188 million of them aged between 18 and 59.

Considering the need for twice vaccinations and vaccine reserves, it means that Indonesia requires around 426 million doses.

Currently, Sadikin said, the Indonesian government has agreements to procure 125 million doses of vaccine with Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech, and 130 million doses with U.S. biotechnology company Novavax.

Besides, the Indonesian government is in the process of cooperating to procure 100 million doses of vaccine with British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and another 100 million doses with U.S. multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer.

Meanwhile, Indonesia also has cooperation in procuring around 16 million to 100 million doses of free vaccine with the COVAX facility, a COVID-19 vaccine distribution program prepared mainly by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The first period of vaccination will be from January to April 2021, for inoculating 1.3 million medical workers, 17.4 million public workers, and 21.5 million elderly people.

"The vaccination for the elderly will be given if the safety certificate from the BPOM (Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency) has been issued," added Sadikin.

The second period will run from April 2021 to March 2022. Enditem

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