Indonesia plans to give booster shots to the general public after 50 per cent of its population has been fully vaccinated, its health minister said on Monday, which he expects to happen at the end of next month.
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country and once Asia's COVID-19 epicenter, has inoculated 29 per cent of its population of 270 million people, using a variety of vaccine brands.
Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a parliamentary hearing the government decided on boosters at the 50 per cent mark due to vaccine inequity concerns at home or abroad.
"Issues of injustice or ethics are so high in the world, because some countries haven't gotten a lot of first shots," he said.
Given for free, Budi said the plan prioritises the elderly and the poor who are insured by the government, while the rest of the population may have to pay for them. Many health workers have already received boosters.
Australia began giving boosters on Monday, while Britain and Germany have also agreed to give them. Thailand has given booster shots to recipients of the Sinovac vaccine over concerns about resistance to the Delta variant.
U.S. President Donald Trump fired General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency on Thursday, according to two officials familiar with the decision, and congressional Democrats denounced the removal of the nonpartisan official from a top security post.
Israel stepped up airstrikes on Syria, declaring the attacks a warning to the new rulers in Damascus as it accused their ally Turkey of trying to turn the country into a Turkish protectorate.
The Trump administration moved forward with the sale of more than 20,000 US-made assault rifles to Israel last month, according to a document seen by Reuters, pushing ahead with a sale that the administration of former president Joe Biden had delayed.
Russia launched a barrage of drones in an overnight attack on Ukraine on Friday, killing at least four people and injuring 35 in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, regional officials said.
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