VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Sinovac Biotech’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine CoronaVac triggered a quick immune response but the level of antibodies produced was lower than in people who had recovered from the disease, preliminary trial results showed on Wednesday.

While the early to mid-stage trials were not designed to assess the efficacy of CoronaVac, researchers said it could provide sufficient protection, based on their experience with other vaccines and data from preclinical studies with macaques.

The study comes hot on the heels of upbeat news this month from U.S. drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna as well as Russia that showed their experimental vaccines were over 90% effective based on interim data from large, late-stage trials.

CoronaVac and four other experimental vaccines developed in China are currently undergoing late-stage trials to determine their effectiveness in preventing COVID-19.

The Sinovac findings, published in a peer-reviewed paper in medical journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, came from results in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials in China involving more than 700 participants.

“Our findings show that CoronaVac is capable of inducing a quick antibody response within four weeks of immunisation by giving two doses of the vaccine at a 14-day interval,” Zhu Fengcai, one of the authors of the paper, said.

“We believe that this makes the vaccine suitable for emergency use during the pandemic,” Zhu said in a statement published alongside the paper.

Researchers said the findings from large, late-stage studies, or Phase III trials, would be crucial to determine if the immune response generated by CoronaVac was sufficient to protect people from the coronavirus infection.

Sinovac is currently running three Phase III trials in Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey.

The results must be interpreted with caution until Phase III results are published, Naor Bar-Zeev, a professor from Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the study, said.

“But even then, after Phase III trial completion and after licensure, we should prudently remain cautious,” he said. (Reuters)

United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock said on Tuesday he would use $100 million from the world body’s emergency fund to help seven countries try to avert famine fueled by conflict, spiraling economies, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some $30 million will be spent in Yemen, $15 million each in Afghanistan and northeast Nigeria, $7 million each in South Sudan and Democratic Republic of the Congo and $6 million in Burkina Faso. Lowcock said $20 million had also been set aside in anticipation of a worsening situation in Ethiopia.

“The prospect of a return to a world in which famines are commonplace would be heart wrenching and obscene in a world where there is more than enough food for everyone. Famines result in agonizing and humiliating deaths,” Lowcock said.

“Their impact on a country is devastating and long lasting,” he said in a statement.

Nearly $500 million has been paid into the U.N. Central Emergency Response Fund in 2020. It is used to enable the world body to respond quickly to new humanitarian crises or underfunded emergencies without having to wait for earmarked donations. (Reuters)

President Joko Widodo reviewed the COVID-19 vaccine immunization simulation at the Tanah Sereal Public Health Center Harapan Keluarga, Bogor, West Java.

"This morning I came to the Puskesmas in Tanah Sereal in Bogor City because yesterday I heard that there will be simulations for vaccinations," said President Jokowi at the Tanah Sereal Community Health Center, Bogor, Wednesday.

President Jokowi arrived at the Puskesmas at 08.21 WIB. At the location also accompanied the President, namely Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto and Mayor of Bogor Bima Arya.

The President then observes the community who participated in the simulation.

The participants came from various backgrounds such as traders, housewives, city government employees to online motorcycle taxi drivers.

Participants sit on seats at a distance and wait for the queue number. Then the participants came to several tables to check their identity and health condition, whether they have congenital diseases (comorbid) or not.

Participants whose identities and health conditions have been checked then enter the Puskesmas to be given the COVID-19 vaccine.

"And because I live here, I stopped by this Tanah Sereal Community Health Center," added the President.

The government is known to have signed an agreement to procure 143 million doses of vaccine concentrate with Chinese pharmaceutical companies Sinovac, Sinopharm, and CanSino, respectively 65 million and 15 million to 20 million vaccine concentrates.

The vaccine is planned to be produced by state-owned company PT Bio Farma.

Apart from China, Indonesia has collaborated on vaccines with the G-24 technology company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in mid-August by supplying 10 million doses of vaccine in collaboration with PT Kimia Farma.

Then there are 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, it is hoped that the first delivery can be made in the second quarter of 2021.

At the same time, the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology (LBM) is also developing the Red and White vaccine as a domestically made COVID-19 vaccine which is different from the COVID-19 vaccine from Sinovac. (Antaranews)

President Joko Widodo declared himself ready to be the first in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

"If someone asks the President in front or behind? If the team asks me to be at the front, I'm ready," said President Jokowi at the Tanah Sereal Community Health Center, Bogor, West Java, Wednesday.

President Joko Widodo conveyed this while reviewing the simulation of the COVID-19 vaccine immunization at the Tanah Sereal Community Health Center, Bogor together with Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto and Bogor Mayor Bima Arya Sugiarto.

However, President Jokowi emphasized that the vaccine recipients are prioritized by health workers.

"Who will be vaccinated first? The first one to be vaccinated is that the health personnel, be it doctors, doctors, nurses and also medical personnel, existing paramedics, will be given priority," he added.

After the health workers, there will be a state civilian apparatus.

However, until now, President Jokowi said that the government had not decided which brand of vaccine to give to the public.

"We will buy the vaccine from a brand company that is on the WHO list. I am not talking about the brand, as long as it is already on the WHO 'list'," said the President.

The Indonesian government is known to have signed an agreement to procure 143 million doses of vaccine concentrate with pharmaceutical companies from China, namely Sinovac, Sinopharm, and CanSino, respectively 65 million and 15 million to 20 million vaccine concentrate.

The vaccine is planned to be produced by state-owned company PT Bio Farma.

The third phase clinical trial of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine is being carried out by a team from the Faculty of Medicine, Padjadjaran University since August 2020 and there have been 1,620 volunteers who received the first injection and have not found any side effects.

Apart from China, Indonesia has collaborated on vaccines with the G-24 technology company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in mid-August by supplying 10 million doses of vaccine in collaboration with PT Kimia Farma.

Then there are still 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, it is hoped that the first delivery will be made in the second quarter of 2021.

The Chairperson of the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery who is also the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said the target recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine are as many as 160 million people with vaccines that must be provided are 320 million doses of vaccine with details:

1. Front guard, such as medical and paramedical contact tracing, TNI / Polri public services, 3,497,737 legal officers with a need for 6,995,474 vaccine doses
2. The community (religious / community leaders), regional apparatus (sub-district, village, RT / RW) some economic actors total 5,624,010 people with a total vaccine of 11,248.00 doses
3. All teaching staff of 4,361,197 people with a vaccine of 8,722,394 people.
4. Government officials (central, regional, and legislative) totaling 2,305,689 people with a total of 4,611,734 doses of vaccine
5. PBJS participants who receive Contribution Assistance (PBI) totaling 86,622,867 people with 173,245,734 doses of vaccine
6. Plus the community and other economic players aged 19-59 years are 57,548,500 people with a vaccine need of 115,097,000 doses. (Antaranews)