Indonesia Highlights: Indonesia to Monitor the Suspension of the AstraZeneca Vaccine in Other Countries | Rebellious Democrat Party Members Report AHY to the Police | Secular and Religious Authorities

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – The fanfare surrounding AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has evaporated days after the company sent a million doses to Indonesia, as the government considers following suit with a number of European countries in suspending the vaccine.

Internal divisions continue to plague the Democrat party, one of Indonesia’s leading opposition parties, after one of its discontented members reported embattled chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono or AHY for fraud.

And religious as well as secular authorities in Pandeglang, Banten moved quickly to shut down the practice of a pre-Islamic ritual, after its adherents were caught practicing the belief in the buff. Read more of these stories, as curated by our editors:

ANTARA FOTO/MUHAMMAD IQBAL First shipment of more than a million doses of AstraZeneca?s Covid-19 vaccine arrived Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang near Jakarta on Monday, March 8.

Indonesia to Monitor the Suspension of the AstraZeneca Vaccine in Other Countries

Indonesian Covid-19 Task Force spokesman Wiku Adisasmito announced that the government is closely monitoring the suspension of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in eight European countries, following reports that the vaccine caused blood clots in 22 people throughout those countries.

“We are following the situation [on the AstraZeneca] vaccine, so if there are side effects [like blood clots], we can share those findings with the National Commission on Post-Immunization Side Effects [Komnas KIPI],” Wiku said on Friday.

“Hopefully, this will help the Food and Drug Agency or BPOM determine the correct precautions before they can pass it onto Komnas KIPI, should a similar situation arise in Indonesia.”

He added that the British manufactured vaccine, which arrived in Indonesia last Monday, should be safe to use for the Indonesian public.

“The European Medicine Agency [EMA] tests on the AstraZeneca vaccine showed no indication that it will cause blood clots,” he said.

“The condition was also not listed as a side effect, while more than 10 million doses of the vaccine is not proven to cause pulmonary embolism or thrombosis for people of any particular age or gender.”

Wiku noted that the vaccine has yet to be used on the Indonesian public, though it received emergency use authorization by BPOM, as its vaccine allocation process by the Ministry of Health is still pending, as are its halal certificate by the Indonesian Ulama Council [MUI].

AstraZeneca sent over a million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine to Indonesia. Eight countries in the European Economic Zone, namely Denmark, Austria, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Luxemburg suspended the vaccine, following reports that 22 people experienced blood clots as a side effect out of three million people from those countries who already received the vaccination.

Source:

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/03/12/19300871/vaksin-astrazeneca-ditangguhkan-di-sejumlah-negara-pemerintah-pantau?page=all#page2. 

ANTARA FOTO/ADITYA PRADANA PUTRA General Chairman of the Democratic Party, Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, delivered a statement to journalists regarding the Extraordinary Congress (KLB) of the Democratic Party which was considered illegal in Jakarta, Friday, March 5. AHY criticized the KLB which took place in Deli Serdang, North Sumatra for being unconstitutional and asked the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) not to validate the outcome of the KLB which decided the Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) Moeldoko as Chairman of the Democratic Party.

Rebellious Democrat Party Members Report AHY to the Police