TNI AL Gelar Vaksinasi untuk Nelayan di Atas Kapal
Indonesia sets sail on maritime vaccination drive
Editor : Kemal A Praghotsa
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
TNI Angkatan Laut [AL] telah mengerahkan 60 kapal beserta kapal perang, untuk menyusuri ribuan kilometer garis pantai dalam upaya mencari nelayan yang belum mendapat vaksinasi, dari Sumatera paling barat hingga pulau Bali dan Papua.
Salah satu kapal perang TNI AL mengerahkan armada perahu karet dengan awak dan vaksin di atas kapal, untuk memvaksin nelayan di lepas pantai Sumatera pada akhir pekan.
Sekitar 1.000 nelayan telah divaksin sejak program nasional yang dimulai pekan lalu, meskipun pihak berwenang mengakui bahwa mereka tidak tahu berapa banyak yang ada di luar sana.
"Cuaca buruk biasanya menjadi penghalang terbesar, tetapi tantangan sebenarnya sekarang adalah menemukan [mereka] karena kami tidak tahu persis di mana mereka berada," kata Kepala Dinas Penerangan Koarmada I Letkol Laut [P] La Ode M. Holib
Dia menambahkan bahwa area pencarian diperpanjang 24 mil laur dari lepas pantai. "Kami hanya menyisir laut," katanya.
Beberapa nelayan di dekat pantai sering berangkat kerja sebelum pusat vaksinasi dibuka dan kembali setelah mereka tutup.
"Jadi itu sebabnya kami mengambil inisiatif untuk mendekati mereka di laut," kata salah satu nelayan, Holib kepada AFP.
Nelayan lainnya menghabiskan waktu berminggu-minggu bahkan berbulan-bulan jauh dari pantai, seperti dikutip AFP yang dilansir MailOnline.
“Kami tahu pemerintah memasok vaksin di darat, tetapi kami tidak punya cukup waktu untuk mendapatkan. Hidup kami bergantung pada laut,” kata nelayan Sumatera, Adi Putra Hasibuan, yang telah mendapat vaksin TNI AL.
INDONESIA is taking its vaccination drive to the sea as the world´s biggest archipelago nation ramps up a bid to innoculate its huge population.
The navy has deployed 60 boats and warships to scour thousands of kilometres of coastline in the hunt for unvaccinated fishermen, from westernmost Sumatra to holiday island Bali and remote Papua.
Among their targets, a navy warship deployed a flotilla of rubber dingeys with crew and vaccines aboard to jab willing fishermen in rickety boats off Sumatra at the weekend.
About 1,000 seafarers have been jabbed since the nationwide programme kicked off last week, although authorities admit they don´t even know how many might be out there.
"Bad weather is usually the biggest barrier, but the real challenge now is actually finding (them) because we don´t exactly know where they are," said navy spokesman Laode Muhamad Holib, adding that the search area extended 24 nautical miles off the coast.
"We´re just combing the sea."
Some Indonesian fishermen spend weeks or even months far from the coast.
Others closer to shore often leave for work before vaccination centres open and return home after they´re closed.
"So that´s why we´re taking the initiative to approach them at sea," Holib told AFP.
The world´s fourth most populous nation has been hammered by the coronavirus pandemic.
But so far only about 12 percent of Indonesia´s 270 million people have been fully vaccinated with two jabs.
"Our lives depend on the sea," said Sumatran fisherman Adi Putra Hasibuan, who took up the navy´s offer.
"We know that the government is supplying vaccines on land but we just don´t have enough time to get one."
