VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Mar. 3 - The first COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered to South Jakarta's Police on Wednesday, with 1,356 officers in total projected to be inoculated in a week.

"Every day, we ready at least 150-200 people for vaccination," Chief of the South Jakarta Police Commissioner Azis Andriansyah, who was scheduled for vaccination, stated.

The inoculation, using the vaccine produced by China's Sinovac, was conducted by the South Jakarta Police's doctors.

The vaccination campaign covers 65 officers of the Bhayangkara Kamtibmas (community police) and the police's medical personnel.

Meanwhile, Vice Health Minister Dante Saksono confirmed that Indonesia had obtained the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech.

"Alhamdulillah (thank God), today, we got 10 million (doses of the) bulk vaccine. This bulk vaccine is raw material that Bio Farma will turn into (ready-to-use) vaccines," the minister stated at an online press briefing here on Tuesday.

The first and second batches of the vaccine received from Sinovac comprised 1.2 million and 1.8 million doses of ready-to-use vaccines, respectively, while the third and fourth batches constituted 15 million and 10 million doses of semi-finished vaccines, respectively.

Indonesia has obtained 38 million vaccine doses from the Chinese biopharmaceutical firm since the first batch landed in the country on December 6 last year.

The government intends to utilize the vaccines to support a mass free vaccination program to cover 181.5 million of the country’s total 271-million populace.

"Another 185 million (doses of the) vaccine from Sinovac will be delivered in stages," Saksono remarked.

Bio Farma, which has secured a certificate of good drug production from the Food and Drug Control Agency (BPOM), will process the bulk Sinovac vaccines to make finished vaccines. (Antaranews)