1.8 Million Sinovac Vaccine Arrives At Soekarno-Hatta 12.00, Takes Immediately To Bandung

JAKARTA - As many as 1.8 million doses made by a pharmaceutical company from China, Sinovac, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang on Thursday, December 31, 2020 at around 12.00 WIB.

The vaccine is transported using Garuda Indonesia aircraft and is the 2nd Sinovac vaccine delivery package, after previously 1.2 million doses were sent on December 6, 2020.

"Alhamdulillah, today 1.8 million Sinovac vaccines have arrived in Indonesia. Then this vaccine will be sent to Bio Farma Bandung for safe storage according to WHO standard protocols for vaccine distortion," said Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi at Soekarno Hatta Airport, Tangerang, quoted from Antara, Thursday 31 December.

With the delivery of the second phase, it means that according to Retno, there are already 3 million Sinovac vaccines in Indonesia.

"In the near future, 15 million 'bulk' vaccines from Sinovac which will be manufactured by Bio Farma will arrive in Indonesia," added Retno.

According to Retno, from the start the government had also continued to establish communication to secure supplies from various other sources.

"Yesterday Indonesia signed a supply commitment from Novavax, which used 50 million doses of sub-recombinant protein 'platform' from the United States, then AstraZenica, which used a viral factor 'platform' from the UK, also amounted to 50 million," said Retno.

In parallel, ongoing discussions are also being held with the vaccine company Pfizer from the United States and Germany.

Retno also said that the vaccine made by the British company AstraZeneca had received an "emergency use authorization" or EUA from the Medicines and Healthcare Product Regulatory Agency or MHRA UK.

"This is good news for all of us because MHRA is one of the regulators that has a 'reliance' mechanism with BPOM with this 'reliance'. The issuance of EUA for AstraZenica is easier and can be a basis and review for issuing EUA in Indonesia," added Retno.

The procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia came from: (1) the Chinese company Sinovac with 125 million vaccines; (2) the United States and Canada Novavax companies totaling 100 million doses; (3) British company AstraZeneca totaling 100 million doses; (4) German and American companies Pfizer with 100 million doses and the Global Alliance for Vaccines (GAVI) as a form of multilateral cooperation where Indonesia can get 16-100 million doses for free.