Jakarta, January 13: Indonesia began the vaccination drive against COVID-19 on Wednesday. The programme aims to inoculate 181.5 Million citizens with CoronaVac vaccine, developed by China's Sinovac Biotech. It was approved for emergency use by country's health regulator on Monday. The vaccine will first be administered to the working population. Indonesia Green-lights Emergency Use of Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine.

President Joko Widodo became the first person to receive the CoronaVac shot in Indonesia. “Vaccination is important to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and give protection to us and safety to every Indonesian and help accelerate economic recovery,” President Widodo said, as reported by Reuters. COVID-19 Vaccine: Turkey Announces Vaccination Plan for Chinese CoronaVac.

Indonesia's Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin had earlier said that the country plans to vaccinate 1.5 million medical workers by February. Public servants and the general population will be administered with COVID-19 vaccine within 15 months.

COVID-19 outbreak is at peak in Indonesia. It has  reported 8,692 new cases in last 24 hours taking  the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 836718. Total 24,343 deaths have been reported so far in the country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 13, 2021 11:59 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).