This is a clear government anticipation of the presence of the government to procure vaccines so that the whole community can achieve 70 percent herd immunityJakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has set aside a budget of about Rp73 trillion for procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the 2021 immunization program, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, revealed on Thursday.
"This is a clear government anticipation of the presence of the government to procure vaccines so that the whole community can achieve 70 percent herd immunity," Hartarto said during an online talk show, Outlook 2021, in Jakarta.
According to him, the vaccines will be obtained from several companies. A total of 1.2 million vaccine doses from China’s Sinovac have already arrived in Indonesia.
The plan, the minister said, is that in January, 2021, 1.8 million doses of the vaccine will be delivered by Sinovac along with raw materials for producing 15 million doses of the vaccine.
Currently, the government is waiting for emergency-use authorization for Sinovac’s vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration (BPOM), he added.
Before issuing a license, the BPOM needs to compare the results of other clinical trials for the vaccine conducted in other countries, he noted.
In a few days, Hartarto said, the BPOM will get the results of research or clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine conducted in Brazil, the first and second phase clinical trials from Sinovac in China, and reports on the results of clinical trials conducted in Bandung.
"So that the three data are combined scientifically by BPOM and we hope that in January (2021), emergency-use authorization can be given," he added.
If there are no hurdles, clinical research in Brazil will be completed before December 25, 2020 and the plan will be announced on December 28, he continued.
Apart from Sinovac, the Ministry of Health has identified five other vaccines for Indonesia, according to the Minister of Health’s Decree Number 9860 of 2020. The five vaccines are from Astra Zeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech. Vaccines produced by PT Bio Farma (Persero) have also been selected for the immunization program.
Earlier, Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, had said the government has set a budget of around Rp54.4 trillion for the free vaccination program.
The funds will come from reserves of Rp18 trillion and around Rp36.4 trillion from the Health budget in the national economic recovery program (PEN), which were not absorbed in 2020 and carried forward for 2021. (INE)
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Translator: Dewa Wiguna, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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