Government to expedite COVID-19 vaccination at South Sumatra's prisons

Palembang, South Sumatra (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Law and Human Rights' South Sumatra Office official stated that the authority will expedite COVID-19 vaccination at 20 prisons in the province to achieve herd immunity.

"The realisation of first vaccine dose distribution among inmates in the province has reached 93 percent from the entire target of 16,468 people," the ministry's provincial office head, Harun Sulianto, noted here on Friday.

The authority will continue to expedite COVID-19 vaccination distribution until all inmates in the province get their first, second, and third booster vaccine doses, he remarked.

COVID-19 vaccination for inmates and prison officials and strict health protocol enforcement in prisons are measures adopted by the authority to prevent COVID-19 infection in South Sumatra's prisons, the office head noted.

Vaccination drives at prisons are also expected to bolster efforts to achieve herd immunity among members of the prison population in the region, he added.

Harun noted that the South Sumatra Police force and National Intelligence Agency office in the South Sumatra region had assisted the effort by providing thousands of COVID-19 vaccines every month.

"We aim to promptly complete the COVID-19 first vaccine dose distribution to the remaining seven percent of the inmates before distributing the second and booster vaccine doses," the office head remarked.

Meanwhile, the ministry's regional office's Prisons Department head Bambang Haryanto stated that for welcoming Eid al-Fitr this year, apart from expediting vaccination distribution among inmates, the authority will also provide video call services that inmates can use to interact with their families.

"The video call service will be provided for inmates to interact with their families that could not visit the prison during Eid al-Fitr next May," Haryanto noted.