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.
Israel is poised to send troops into Rafah, the Gazan city it sees as the last bastion of Hamas, Israeli media reported on Wednesday, saying preparations were under way to evacuate war-displaced Palestinian civilians who have been sheltering there.
A Russian court on Wednesday ordered one of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu's deputies be kept in custody on suspicion of taking bribes, the highest-profile corruption case since President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, a senior figure in the country's ruling party, met with Donald Trump on Tuesday, becoming the latest US ally seeking to establish ties with the Republican presidential candidate.
Russian missiles damaged residential buildings and injured six people in Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, early on Wednesday, Governor Oleh Synehubov said on Telegram.
Five migrants died in an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain in an overcrowded small boat on Tuesday, hours after Britain passed a bill to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda in a move to deter the dangerous journeys.