VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Feb. 2 - Indonesia has received another 10 million doses of semi-finished coronavirus vaccine and one million overfill doses of the coronavirus vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd., Secretary General of the Health Ministry Oscar Primadi stated.

The fourth batch of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Tuesday morning.

"(The first batch of) the vaccine arrived (in Indonesia) in December (2020). Today, we (received) another 10 million doses of the semi-finished vaccine and one million overfill (doses) of the vaccine from Sinovac," Primadi stated while delivering a press statement virtually from the airport.

The health ministry’s secretary general noted that the arrival of the fourth batch of COVID-19 vaccine reflected the state’s presence to ensure public health.

Up until now, the ministry has received 28 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine and vaccine candidate, he stated.

"The availability of safe vaccine in accordance with the government’s scheme is the result of sound coordination," he remarked.

Primadi noted that an estimated 500 thousand out of the targeted 1.5 million healthcare workers had received COVID-19 vaccine shots as of early this month.

In addition to Sinovac, the government had sought out other sources of the vaccine.

"Indonesia has signed a commitment to supply 50 million doses of the vaccine from the US company Novavax that used the sub-recombinant protein platform and 50 million doses from British company AstraZeneca that used the viral factor platform," Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi noted at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport recently.

AstraZeneca's vaccine has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Indonesia has ordered the COVID-19 vaccine from various sources: 125 million doses from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd; 100 million doses of US-Canada's Novavax; 100 million doses from British AstraZeneca; 100 million doses from Germany-US' Pfizer; and 16-100 million doses of free vaccine from Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) as part of a multilateral cooperation. (Antaranews)