Minister Of Foreign Affairs Called The COVID-19 Vaccine Available Faster In The Second Quarter Of 2021

Illustration of the COVID-19 (Unsplash) vaccine

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister (Menlu) Retno Marsudi said the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX global facility led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Vaccines Alliance (GAVI), will be available sooner, namely the second quarter of this year.

"We see a trend of progress, if initially the vaccine via the multilateral route will only be available in the third quarter or fourth quarter, then in recent communications (with WHO and GAVI), multilateral vaccines are likely to be available in the second quarter of 2021," he said. Retno told reporters as reported by Antara, Wednesday, January 13.

To gain access to the COVID-19 vaccine from GAVI, Indonesia, which is included in 92 low and middle income countries, will be assisted by donor countries through the COVAX AMC funding mechanism.

Indonesia itself has submitted the submission required by the COVAX Facility, namely an expression of interest letter on 16 October 2020, a request for technical assistance form on 27 November 2020, a request form for vaccine part A on 7 December 2020, and followed by a part B vaccine request form related to indemnification. on January 8, 2021.

The next submission that will be submitted by Indonesia is a cold chain equipment (CCE) support request form related to the technical capacity of providing vaccine cooling systems in the first quarter of 2021.

As an AMC country, Indonesia has the opportunity to get vaccines with full subsidies for 20 percent of the total population or around 54 million people.

By signing the part B vaccine form, Indonesia has the opportunity to receive up to 108 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility.

Vaccine deliveries from the COVAX Facility will be gradual, i.e. 3 percent in the first quarter of 2021 and proportionately to 92 AMC countries.