PRESS RELEASE

Citizen Reports Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination: Information Regarding Vaccination Needs to Be Improved

JAKARTA, 4 June 2021 Based on the feedback obtained from the LaporCovid-19 chatbot that some reporters believe that information regarding COVID-19 vaccination is not fully accessible to citizens. As a result, there are still people who are reluctant or afraid of being vaccinated. Therefore, residents recommend that the government strengthen socialization and information regarding COVID-19 vaccination. The initiation of feedback on the implementation of this vaccination is a collaboration between Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) and LaporCovid-19 to map citizens' voices so that the problems that occur are known and can be used as input for improvement.

This data was obtained for 20 days from 6-26 April 2021 via the LaporCovid-19 chatbot on the Whatsapp and Telegram applications. A total of 185 reporters conveyed their observations and perceptions regarding the implementation of the Covid-19 vaccination. Most of the reporters (66.5%) were in urban areas and the rest were in rural areas. Meanwhile, the ages of the reporters vary, from children to the elderly. Rural and urban reporters gave different assessments of the implementation of vaccination. As many as 45% of rural feedback gave poor grades. Meanwhile, urban areas account for 20%. Several reporters reported situations during vaccination, such as long queues, lack of clarity during health interviews, and careless storage of packaging.

From the feedback results, it was found that urban reporters knew the basic information about vaccination plans better than rural reporters. As many as 20% of urban and rural reporters have complete/basic knowledge about when they will get vaccinated, which groups receive priority for vaccination, what the registration process is, and that vaccination is free. From the results of the reporter's observations, only 8 people (4.3%) knew that the 3 vaccination priority groups in their area (Public Officials, Health Workers and the Elderly) had been vaccinated.

Based on citizen observation data, there are indications that the implementation of vaccines in various regions (rural and urban) has not fully reached the groups that have been designated as priority vaccine recipients. Based on the results of the reporter's observations, four major complaints/problems were also found that the reporter conveyed regarding the implementation of vaccination. First, regarding unclear information on vaccination implementation; second, complaints about the vaccination process. Third, the issue of vaccination priorities. Fourth, fear or reluctance to vaccinate. Of the four problems found, both urban and rural reporters complained that the problems of socialization and implementation of vaccination were two big problems that occurred in both urban and rural areas.

For this reason, as many as 40.3% of rural reporters and 28.4% of urban reporters provided recommendations to the government to strengthen the socialization and delivery of COVID-19 vaccination information.

In addition, based on the findings of the citizen feedback assessment regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination, the government needs to prioritize budget availability to ensure vaccine needs are met. Vaccination implementation also needs to be carried out transparently, and must continue to be monitored and evaluated. In the regions, local governments also need to develop communication strategies that take into account the diversity of information needs of the community and are proactive in collecting data and registering vaccines. Apart from that, the public also needs to proactively seek information regarding vaccines, and remain disciplined in implementing the 5M (wearing masks, maintaining distance, washing hands, staying away from crowds, limiting mobilization).

"To ensure that the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination program is implemented effectively and on target, we (WVI and LaporCovid-19) believe that the feedback process from citizens, or social accountability, plays an important role in handling the COVID-19 disaster. Citizens' voices will help the government identify problems in the field and then make improvements, so that the implementation of the vaccination policy runs well and is accountable," said WVI Advocacy Manager, Junito Drias.

The vaccination program is as important as increasing testing and tracing capacity as an effort to recover this country from the COVID-19 pandemic. So that all Indonesian citizens can return to full activities, including situations where children can play and participate in full teaching and learning activities.

Amanda Tan, LaporCovid-19 volunteer conveying the initiation of citizen voice feedback regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination was carried out to convey the citizen's voice regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination, and encourage better government policies and implementation regarding the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination.

"The results of this feedback are expected to provide an overview of residents' knowledge of the vaccination program, residents' observations of vaccination plans and implementation, community sentiment/tendencies regarding the vaccination program based on observations and recommendations of residents regarding the vaccination program. This mapping is expected to become an advocacy tool to encourage better implementation of COVID-19 vaccination implementation policies, so that ultimately it helps the government achieve vaccination targets in accordance with priorities based on SAGE WHO recommendations," said Amanda.

The complete report regarding the results of citizen feedback can be downloaded at www.laporcovid19.org.

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About ReportCovid-19

LaporCovid-19 is a platform for fellow citizens to share information regarding the number of incidents related to COVID-19 around us. A bottom-up approach through citizen reporting or crowdsourcing so that every citizen can participate in conveying information about cases related to COVID-19. For more information, visit: Website: www.laporcovid19.org , IG: @laporcovid19, Twitter: @laporcovid, FB: LaporCovid-19 Citizens Coalition

Or contact:
Amanda Tan, LaporCovid-19 volunteer
M. +62 858 6604 4058
Email: [email protected]

About Wahana Visi Indonesia

Wahana Visi Indonesia is a Christian humanitarian organization that exists to serve and collaborate in empowering the most vulnerable children, families and communities through community development, advocacy and disaster response approaches to bring about sustainable change without distinction between religion, race, ethnicity and gender. Since 1998, the Wahana Visi Indonesia Foundation has run a community development program that focuses on children. Hundreds of thousands of children in Indonesia have benefited from the WVI mentoring program. For more information, visit: Website: https://www.wahanavisi.org/ IG: @wahanavisi_id FB: Wahana Visi Indonesia

Or contact:
Amanda Nugrahanti, Media Relations Executive
Tel. +62 21 2977 0123 ext. 3304/M. +62 811 274 9344
E-mail: [email protected]

This press release can be downloaded via following link.
Presentation pointers can be downloaded via following link.