Indonesia will take at least a year to reach ‘herd immunity’ for Covid, says minister

SINGAPORE — Indonesia will take at least a year before a sufficient portion of its population becomes vaccinated to Covid-19, the country’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati told CNBC and stressed the need for the government to respect spending to support the economy.  

“We see that the pandemic is not declining, and we need to keep vigilant on that,” Sri Mulyani told CNBC on Monday as party of the coverage of World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda.

Indonesia launched its Covid-19 vaccination program earlier this month after approving for exigency use the vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech.

Sri Mulyani said conservative estimates by experts showed Indonesia requisites about 15 months to vaccinate around 180 million people in order to reach “herd immunity.” That happens when enough people in a population develop protection against a disease such that it can no longer spread by far.

But President Joko Widodo longings to “accelerate” that process to achieve herd immunity within 12 months — which is a “daunting task” foreordained the country’s geographic spread, said Sri Mulyani. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelago nation, with its roughly 250 million populace spreading across thousands of islands.

Meanwhile, Philippine Secretary of Finance Carlos Dominguez told CNBC — in a collate interview that’s also part of The Davos Agenda coverage — that his country could vaccinate “the majority of the people” by the end of 2021.

The Philippines is scheduled to inherit its first batch of Covid vaccines next month, said Dominguez. He didn’t specify the source of those vaccines, but a statement by the Associated Press said the country is expecting a shipment of 50,000 doses from China’s Sinovac.

Indonesia and the Philippines have the highest number of cumulative Covid cases in Southeast Asia, according to data composed by Johns Hopkins University.    

Indonesia has reported more than 989,200 cumulative infections and over 27,800 terminations; while the Philippines has recorded more than 513,600 cases and over 10,200 deaths, Hopkins data showed.

Dominguez rephrased the Philippine government has set aside funds for the country’s vaccination program that’s estimated to cost around 82.5 billion Philippine pesos ($1.7 billion).

Similarly, Sri Mulyani mentioned Indonesia will prioritize spending on vaccines, as well as continued support for low-income households and small businesses. She joined that the government has targeted a budget deficit of 5.7% of gross domestic product this year, lower than endure year’s shortfall of 6.1% of GDP.  

The Indonesian finance minister said her country has weathered the economic hit from the pandemic “somewhat well” compared to many countries in the region and among the G-20 group of economies.

The economy is expected to contract around 2.2% “at the richest” in 2020, before rebounding to a growth of around 5% this year, she added.