Minister Of Health Delays Use Of AstraZeneca Vaccine In Indonesia

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has postponed the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia while awaiting the results of research by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Currently, said Budi, WHO together with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (UK) and the European Medical Authority are examining the presence or absence of side effects such as blood clots in the case of using the Oxford vaccine.

"Until now WHO is still researching, we have also received from the MHRA, the BPOM of the UK, and the EMA is the European Medical Authority, they have not confirmed whether there is a correlation due to vaccines or not," said Minister of Health Budi in a working meeting at Commission IX DPR, Jakarta, Monday 15 March.

So far, said Budi, information about several cases of blood clots was not caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine but by other incidents. However, the Ministry of Health together with the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) agreed to state a temporary suspension of use of AstraZeneca.

"For its conservatism, BPOM has postponed the implementation of AstraZeneca while waiting for WHO's confirmation, hopefully it can come out in a short time, because there is an expiration period at the end of May," he said.

In addition to WHO research, continued Budi, the Ministry of Health is also still waiting for the halal fatwa from the Indonesian Ulema Council for the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is because many parties have questioned the halal use of the vaccine, especially the DPR.

"The MUI will have a meeting tomorrow or the day after, so that the fatwa can be issued by the MUI in the next two days," said Minister of Health Budi.

It is known that Indonesia will receive 11,704,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through the multilateral cooperation of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) COVAX Facility with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Currently, 1,113,600 doses have arrived in Indonesia on Monday, March 8. The rest is expected to arrive in May 2021.

However, it was reported that eight European countries had temporarily stopped injecting the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, following reports of patient blood clots after being vaccinated.