After Sinovac, Minister Of Foreign Affairs Retno Hopes That The Covid-19 Vaccine COVAX Comes In 2021

Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno LP Marsudi (Photo: Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister (Menlu) Retno LP Marsudi welcomed the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine from China in Indonesia on Sunday, December 6 evening.

He said the arrival of this vaccine in the country was the result of diplomacy between the Indonesian government and the Chinese government which had been carried out in stages over time.

Furthermore, after the vaccine from Sinovac arrived, Indonesia also took a number of ways to meet domestic vaccination needs. This includes continuing to communicate with AstraZeneca from the UK and joining COVAX to get a multilateral vaccine from the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Currently, together with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to communicate with Geneva for the procurement of multilateral vaccines," said Retno in a press conference broadcast online on the YouTube account of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Monday, December 7.

"As we all know, Indonesia is one of the 92 Covax AMC countries that will get vaccines of 3 to 20 percent of the population from the GAVI-COVAX Facility," he added.

It is known, COVAX is a WHO program to ensure the distribution of vaccines evenly throughout the world.

Returning to Retno, in order to obtain this facility, Indonesia continues to make a number of technical and administrative preparations. This includes sending a vaccine request form to the COVAX Facility and this has been done according to the deadline, which is today by the Ministry of Health.

Furthermore, there are still a number of steps that must be done. So it is hoped that in 2021, the multilateral vaccine from COVAX will arrive in Indonesia to meet domestic needs.

"It is hoped that the multilateral vaccine can also gradually enter Indonesia in 2021," he said.

Previously, the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Indonesia via Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Cengkareng, on Sunday, December 6 at around 21:25 WIB. The vaccine is transported using an aircraft belonging to the airline PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk (GIAA), an aircraft of the Boeing 777-300ER type.

According to President Joko Widodo, the number of Sinovac vaccines arriving in Indonesia has reached 1.2 million. Next, in order to meet the needs in the country, he said as many as 1.8 million doses would arrive in early January 2021.

"Apart from the finished vaccine, this month there will be 15 million doses of vaccine and January 30 million doses of raw materials which will be further processed by Bio Farma," he said.

As is known, there are two vaccination steps that have been established by the government. First, government vaccines. This vaccine will be provided free of charge to priority groups. As for those who fall into the priority group are medical personnel, TNI, Polri, and the poor who are registered at BPJS Kesehatan.

The second is independent vaccination. This category is intended for people who are not included in the priority group. People can vaccinate independently by buying themselves on their own accord.