VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Officials at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang, move containers loaded with Pfizer vaccines obtained by the Indonesian government through a business-to-business scheme on Thursday (August 19, 2021). (ANTARA/HO-Health Ministry/aa/KT) - 

Pfizer vaccines under the COMIRNATY brand that recently arrived in Indonesia are being distributed in the metropolitan area of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi city (Jabodetabek), the Health Ministry has said.

The Pfizer vaccine is targeted at the unvaccinated public in the Jabodetabek area and will be provided for free, the ministry's head of communications and public services, Widyawati, said in a statement received here on Saturday.

According to Widyawati, the distribution of the vaccine in the Jabodetabek area has been prioritized because of the complex logistics system: the vaccine requires special handling and needs to be stored at a very low temperature of -90 to -60 degrees Celsius.

"This vaccine must be prepared by trained health workers to use certain techniques in dealing with cold chains, including how to dilute the vaccine before it is injected," she emphasized.

As many as 1,560,780 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Indonesia on Thursday through a direct purchase scheme, she informed. Fifty million Pfizer vaccines will gradually arrive in Indonesia this year through the scheme, she added.

The number does not include Pfizer vaccines which will be obtained through the GAVI/Covax scheme, under which Indonesia will secure 4.6 million doses in the next few weeks, she said.

"The Pfizer vaccine received an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the Drug and Food Control Agency on July 14, 2021, so that the public can get the jab," Widyawati said.

There are currently six types of vaccines being used in Indonesia to fight the COVID-19 virus: the CoronaVac, Sinopharm, COVID-19 vaccine (made by state-run pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma vaccine using raw materials from Sinovac), AstraZeneca from the United Kingdom, and Moderna and Pfizer from the United States.

"The government continues to bring the best vaccines from many manufacturers in order to secure the availability of vaccines to protect the 208 million Indonesians targeted by COVID-19 vaccination," Widyawati said.

Although there are several types of vaccines made available in Indonesia, the public must not be picky about vaccines because the government has guaranteed the safety and efficacy of each vaccine type, she added.

She assured all vaccines are safe and efficacious and called on the public who have not received COVID-19 shots to get them immediately//ANT