Vaccines From Covax Facility Delay, Foreign Minister Retno: Supply Starts To Improve September-October

VOI DOCUMENTATION/Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi

JAKARTA - Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, said there were several challenges faced by the Covax Facility in the supply of COVID-19 vaccines.

This condition causes delays in receipts experienced by participating countries including Indonesia which is a member of the Advance Market Commitment (AMC).

Therefore, Foreign Minister Retno together with the Ethiopian Minister of Health and Canada's Minister of International Development held a meeting on Monday, July 13.

"I chaired the fifth meeting of the Covax AMC Engagement Group. During the meeting, the challenges faced by COVAX in terms of vaccine supply caused delays in the delivery of vaccines to Covax participants", said Retno in an online press conference broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube, July 13.

Even so, Foreign Minister Retno said that currently, Covax is continuing to work on fixing the problem. These improvements must be made so that the supply of COVID-19 vaccines can be accepted by all countries, especially developing countries.

"It is estimated that the supply of vaccines will be better from September-October onwards", said Retno.

The increase in vaccine supply is possible after the cooperation between GAVI and Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Cooperation can occur because both types of vaccines have received an emergency use list from the World Health Organization.

"GAVI also informed that it has received a dose-sharing commitment of around 300 million until the end of 2021. Of course, this dose-sharing mechanism will help distribute vaccines to countries in the world", She concluded.