Tue 20 October 2020:
President of Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim majority, Joko Widodo warned on October 19 that the nation shall not rush into rolling out vaccines for COVID-19 and cited his concerns over the awareness of citizens about whether they were ‘Halal’.
“We should consider public perception regarding the halal status of potential COVID-19 vaccines,” he said during a meeting.
Controversy over whether vaccines adhere to Islamic principles has stymied public health responses before in Indonesia, including in 2018, when the Indonesian Ulema Council issued a fatwa or ruling declaring that a measles vaccine was haram, or forbidden under Islam.
“Public communication regarding the halal status, price, quality and distribution must be well-prepared,” he added.
Vice President Ma’ruf Amin meanwhile said that the COVID-19 vaccines that will be distributed must receive halal certification from the authorities beforehand.
on Monday, Widodo said in a statement that the COVID-19 vaccine requires “detailed and careful preparation” and assured that it will not be carried out in a hurry. This comes after some Indonesian ministers reportedly indicated that vaccines could be approved in the nation as early as November.
Widodo cautions before long holiday
With a series of upcoming national holidays including ‘Maulud Nabi’, the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, Indonesian President noted that the country has an experience of witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases after the holiday season. Therefore, Widodo said on October 19 that government officials shall anticipate the activities that would take place during the end of October to prevent an increase in positive cases of the disease.
Widodo wrote on Twitter, “We have experienced that after a long holiday there was a rather high increase in positive cases of Covid-19. Therefore, I remind government officials to anticipate the long holiday activities at the end of this October, so that there should not be an increase in Covid-19 cases afterwards.”
Previously, Indonesia has reportedly vowed to vaccinate over 100 million people in 2021 of COVID-19 but Widodo assured on October 19 that scale of inoculation in an archipelagic country of at least 270 million would be challenging and thus adhered to a more cautious approach.
