President Jokowi Opens Options For Astrazeneca Vaccine Sent Specifically For One Province

The vaccinator injects the first dose of the COVID-19 Sinovac vaccine into a health worker (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo has opened an option to distribute the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to only one province to be injected into the public.

Jokowi said that this option is being considered by the Ministry of Health, as seen from the management of the injection.

"It is still under discussion at the Ministry of Health whether the AstraZeneca vaccine will be specialized in a province specifically, so that the management will be easier, this has not been decided yet," Jokowi said in the Presidential Secretariat Youtube broadcast on Saturday, February 20.

Jokowi said that at the end of February or early March the vaccine produced by this British pharmaceutical company would arrive in Indonesia with 4.6 million doses.

If AstraZeneca is distributed to various regions, Jokowi considers that it will be troublesome for the vaccination technique using the Sinovac type that has been running. He said, the duration of vaccination between Sinovac and AstraZeneca from the first dose to the second dose was different.

"The Sinovac (injection period) is 2 weeks. For AstraZeneca, I receive information on the first and second injections that take different times, 1 month to 2 months," he said.

Previously, the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) would issue an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the AstraZeneca brand of COVID-19 vaccine.

"We have also received information that there is indeed an emergency use listing from WHO for the AstraZeneca vaccine which will be distributed through multilateral cooperation has been released. BPOM's task is to issue the EUA," said Head of BPOM Penny Lukito.

Penny explained, although WHO has included AstraZeneca in the list of approval for emergency use, each country will follow up by issuing the EUA. In this case the BPOM.

Currently, the BPOM as the drug regulatory authority is still waiting for a comprehensive, professional dossier or collection of documentation on pharmaceutical raw materials produced by AstraZeneca.