JAKARTA: The Indonesian Health Ministry has provided the elderly and workers in the tourism sector with drive-thru services to give them easier access to getting vaccinated against Covid-19 at a shorter distance from their houses or workplaces.
For the time being, the drive-thru services take place only in the capital city of Jakarta and the tourist resort island of Bali.
“With the drive-thru services, the elderly will not queue and go far to health facilities to get vaccinated,” the Indonesian Covid-19 mitigation task force’s spokesman Wiku Adisasmito said.
According to Adisasmito, the Health Ministry carried out the drive-thru services in cooperation with Halodoc, an Indonesian company that provides online health consultation, and Gojek which is an Indonesian company dealing with ride-hailing services.
The services started on March 3 and will be in place till the end of 2021, he said, adding that senior citizens who want to participate in the services just register with Halodoc through its health service application which is open from 9 am to 4 pm local time.
“The cooperation with Halodoc and Gojek is not a form of commercialisation of the Covid-19 vaccine. This cooperation is an effort to increase vaccination coverage in Jakarta. In addition, the drive-thru vaccination programme is free of charge,” Wiku said.
On the same development, the Health Ministry implements the Covid-19 vaccination for workers in the tourism sector in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, ride-hailing company Grab and online health consultation firm Good Doctor.
The Covid-19 vaccination programme is carried out also using a drive-thru system located on the island of Bali.
The first phase of vaccination in Bali was from Feb 27 to March 5, and the second phase will be from March 13-19. It is also free of charge and expected to accelerate herd immunity and restore the tourism sector on the island of Bali.
As reported on the Health Ministry’s website, related to the flow of drive-thru vaccination, the organisers provided services such as verification posts, health checks, vaccination and final observation.
In principle, the stages carried out are the same as the current vaccination methods except that all participants do not need to get off the vehicles.
After being vaccinated, the participants are required to wait for 30 minutes. They can wait in the cars or in the tents that have been provided by the organisers.
During the observation, the car windows should be lowered to make it easier for health workers to monitor, and if there are complaints, the participants are asked to honk the horns as a signal to the workers.
If there are no complaints during the observation period, they are allowed to go home. Certificates of proof of getting vaccinated will be sent via short messages of mobile phones.
In Jakarta, the city health office provides mini intensive care units, mobile ambulances and motorcycles as fast reaction units in anticipation of possible complaints from the participants after vaccination.
These vaccination services involve a number of teams of health workers and vaccinators. In addition, to regulate the smooth running of the services, the organizers also deploy a team that is ready to help usher the participants starting from the registration process until they receive certificates of proof that they have been vaccinated.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin appreciated the drive-thru vaccination which can help accelerate the national vaccination programme.
The government targets to have 181.5 million Indonesians get vaccinated. The vaccination process began on Jan 13 and is planned to be completed within one year.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-Founder of Halodoc, Jonathan Sudharta said he was proud to be appointed as the first and only official partner for the Health Ministry in presenting Covid-19 vaccination service posts in the drive-thru method.
“We believe that this cross-stakeholder collaboration can help achieve the government’s Covid-19 vaccination program targets this year,” Sudharta said.
Kevin Aluwi, the co-Founder and co-CEO at Gojek, also appreciated the government’s policies and efforts to prioritise the elderly as vaccine recipients. – Bernama
