Good News, Foreign Minister Retno Says The First Batch Of Astrazeneca Vaccine Delivery Lasts Until May

Illustration - PfizerBioNTech Vaccine. (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Secretary of Defense)

JAKARTA - The government has again received 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines. Different from the previous variant, this time, Indonesia received the COVID-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca.

"Today, Indonesia received the first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, in a total of 1,113,600 vaccines, with a total weight of 4.1 tons consisting of 111,136 cartons," said Foreign Minister (Menlu) Retno Marsudi as broadcasted on the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Monday, March 8.

This amount, he continued, was part of the first batch of vaccines through the multilateral route. The number of finished vaccines that the government will receive in the first part of this shipment reaches 11,704,800 doses.

Retno also explained that the plan is for the delivery of the first batch to be carried out in the next few months.

"The delivery of the first batch will be carried out until May 2020 and God willing, according to the plan, the next batches will be followed," he said.

Furthermore, Retno said that the arrival of multilateral vaccines such as AstraZeneca was inseparable from the cooperation between ministries, institutions, and cooperation with various international parties such as GAVI, WHO, UNICEF, and others. So, the Indonesian government appreciates this.

In the future, in order to continue to meet the needs of the COVID-19 vaccine in the country, the government will continue to strengthen vaccine diplomacy.

"Diplomacy will also continue to be strengthened to help the government's efforts to build health resilience and economic recovery," he said.

As previously reported, President Joko Widodo confirmed that 4.6 million COVID-19 vaccines for the AstraZeneca brand will arrive in Indonesia this month. This vaccine is ready to use in finished form.

"God willing, in March, there will be another 4.6 million doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca," Jokowi said in the Presidential Secretariat Youtube broadcast, Thursday, March 4.

Jokowi said that currently, all countries are grabbing vaccine stocks from existing vaccine producers. Thanks to the early lobbying, Indonesia was able to secure hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine for the public.

"Alhamdulillah, because at the beginning we have made approaches both from the government to the government, G to G and directly to several vaccine producers," said Jokowi.

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

This is related to the news that the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued an emergency use listing of the vaccine made by the British pharmaceutical company.

"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. The Food and Drug Administration's task is to issue the UAE," said the Head of Food and Drug Administration, 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 Food and Drug Administration.

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