As Many As 1.4 Million Sinopharm Vaccines Arrive, Deputy Minister Of SOE Confident That Indonesia Will Soon Achieve Herd Immunity

The Sinopharm vaccine which will be used for the Mutual Cooperation Vaccine has returned to Indonesia. (photo: BUMN)

JAKARTA - Indonesia returns to stock vaccines on Tuesday, July 13. A total of 1.408 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine have just arrived at Soekarno Hatta Airport. The total Sinopharm vaccine to be imported into Indonesia reaches 4 million doses.

"Today we witnessed approximately 1.408 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine carried by Garuda Indonesia flight GA891. This is the third part of the Sinopharm vaccination", said Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Pahala N. Mansyuri in a virtual press conference, Tuesday, July 13.

According to Pahala, the number will still increase. In the next three days, there will be a Sinopharm vaccine arriving in the country. This vaccine is used for the need for independent COVID-19 vaccination or Mutual Cooperation (Gotong Royong).

"Where we estimate that in the next three days there will be a total of 4 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that will be used to carry out Gotong Royong vaccinations", he said.

Pahala also said the Sinopharm vaccine has 79 percent efficacy and has been approved by 56 countries. "We hope that the Sinopharm vaccine will be imported by Kimia Farma, which is a subsidiary of Biofarma, for mutual cooperation vaccinations. We have collaborated to bring in 15 million Sinopharm vaccines," he said.

Pahala said the Gotong Royong vaccination is complementary to complement the government's vaccine program in achieving herd immunity or building group immunity.

Sinopharm vaccine is expected to create herd immunity.

"With the Gotong Royong vaccination, we can accelerate so that Indonesia can immediately achieve herd immunity and can also ease the burden on the government in terms of implementing the vaccination program", he said.

Furthermore, Pahala said that the arrival of the Gotong Royong Sinopharm vaccine would increase the optimism of the Indonesian people.

"So that we can overcome and fight the COVID-19 virus. Hopefully, our struggle to fight this pandemic is worth it and don't forget to continue to maintain the process and run 5M health protocols", he said.