15 Million Doses of Covid-19 Bulk Vaccine Arrive in Indonesia

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia has received 15 million doses of Covid-19 bulk vaccine, marking the third batch of vaccines from China-based biopharmaceuticals Sinovac on Tuesday, January 12.

In a live telecast via the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel, the vaccine in bulk arrived in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta by the national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia at around 12:20 pm local time.

The third batch delivery added to the three million doses of Coronavirus vaccines the government previously received.

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On Dec. 6, the Indonesian government received the first shipment of 1.2 million doses of the Chinese vaccine, while the second shipment of 1.8 million doses arrived on Dec. 31. The vaccines from these two deliveries contained ready-to-use vaccines.

Meanwhile, the latest batch of shipment carried the Covid-19 vaccine in bulk requires to be processed about a month by state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma.

“By early February we will have 12 million doses of ready-to-use vaccines produced from the 15 million doses of Covid-19 bulk vaccine,” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin on Monday, January 11.

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The government will use the Sinovac vaccine in the first mass Covid-19 inoculation program in the country on Wednesday, January 13. President Joko Widodo will get the first shot of the coronavirus vaccine.

“InsyaAllah [God willing] we will begin the vaccination program on Wednesday with President [Joko Widodo] will be the first person in the country to receive the Covid-19 vaccine,” Budi said in a live telecast on Monday.

It was previously reported that the mass inoculation program aims to vaccinate 182 million or 70 percent of the country’s population for free. To do so, Indonesia needs about 426 million doses of vaccine.

(Writer: Fitria Chusna Farisa | Editor: Bayu Galih)

Source: https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/01/12/12370251/15-juta-dosis-bahan-baku-vaksin-covid-19-sinovac-tiba-di-indonesia.