By News Editor
JAKARTA: Indonesia is expected to import the vaccine for COVID-19 from China starting from November, following with the consent from biopharmaceutical company from China, Sinovac Biotech (Sinovac) that will be providing 50 million dos of vaccine to Indonesia.
The CoronaVac vaccine will be distributed accordingly starting from coming November till March 2021 with approximately 10 million dos of vaccine supplied each of the months.
Meanwhile, the other countries in Southeast Asia are working to get the vaccine supply as the infection cases are increasing.
During a trip to China, the Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi mentioned that the consent had already been signed with Sinovac on the purchase and the supply for CoronaVac under a governmental company, Bio Farma and Bio Farma will be granted with the priority access until the end of 2021.
“Indonesia sees a strong commitment from the China industry for a corporation,” mentioned through a video link on Thursday.
According to a statement from Bio Farma on Friday, there will be 50 million dos of vaccine distributed accordingly, which will be 10 million dos of vaccine for each month starting from this November.
Indonesia is attempting to obtain the vaccines for 260 million of its citizens while looking for certain ways to stand strong among a few countries that are competing to gain access to the vaccine.
Indonesia reported with 2,197 of new infection cases of COVID-19 on Friday, accumulated 149,408 cases.
From the data of the Health Ministry, it shows that there are 82 death cases recorded, accumulated 6,500 cases of death from COVID-19, the highest death cases recorded in Southeast Asia.
The third phase of CoronaVac vaccine test had started last week in Indonesia, involved 1,620 volunteers.
Bio Farma is also involved in developing the vaccine and it stated that Indonesia should have the capabilities to produce 250 million dos of vaccine a year by the end of 2020. – Berita Harian
