Indonesia receives first COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinovac

• Indonesia received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China on 6 Dec 20, President Joko Widodo said, as the government prepares a mass inoculation programme.
• 1.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Chinese firm Sinovac in Indonesia manufactured arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten, on 6 Dec 20 at 9:25 p.m. western Indonesian time (WIB).
• President Jokowi added that the government plans to receive another 1.8 million doses in early Jan 21. Late-stage trials of the Sinovac vaccine are also under way in Brazil and Turkey, with interim results on efficiency from Brazil expected by mid-Dec 20.
• Indonesia is also expected in Dec 20 to receive shipments of raw materials to produce 15 million doses and materials for 30 million doses in Jan 21, the president said.
• The vaccine still needs to be evaluated by the country’s food and drug agency (BPOM) while his administration continues to prepare for distributing the vaccine across the vast archipelago of 270 million people, Jokowi said.
• The Sinovac vaccine’s arrival underlines the unique challenge faced by Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago, in rolling out the shots to a population strewn across about 6,000 islands.
• The doses arrived in Jakarta on 6 Dec midnight and had to be transported by refrigerated trucks over a three-hour drive to the city of Bandung, just 150 kilometers (93 miles) away. That journey is likely to take much longer and be more complex for regions beyond Java island, which has the most robust infrastructure.
• Besides Sinovac, the government has orders with at least three other vaccine suppliers, including AstraZeneca Plc, whose shots are in late-stage trials.

External Link : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-06/indonesia-gets-first-batch-of-covid-vaccine-from-china-s-sinovac

External Link : https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN28G0KJ

External Link : https://en.antaranews.com/news/163244/sinovacs-12-mln-covid-19-vaccine-doses-to-dispel-uncertainty-kadin