Bali may experience a two-month delay in its mass vaccination program, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan said, with the country now expecting delays from vaccine shipments due to export restrictions.
“I have specifically requested to the Health Minister to speed up vaccinations in Bali, but because there are blockades from a number of vaccine-producing countries, this has resulted in a two-month delay from the initial plan,” Luhut said yesterday.
The Bali provincial government said it is aiming to vaccinate 70 percent of the island’s approximately 4.3 million population by the end of June. The province has managed to vaccinate over 352,000 by the end of March, more than 105,000 of whom have received both of the required two doses.
Officials are hoping to reach everyone in the “green zone” areas of Ubud, Nusa Dua, and Sanur by the end of this week, as part of a potential plan to reopen to foreign tourism this year.
Indonesia is rationing its vaccine use as the country expects delays in shipments from AstraZeneca due to export restrictions and a slowdown in the production of CoronaVac, the vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac.
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