Today, we succeeded in bringing in the seventh batch of the COVID-19 vaccine, reaching as many as 16 million (doses) in bulk formJakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia has again received 16 million semi-finished doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd that arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang, Banten Province, on Thursday.
"Today, we succeeded in bringing in the seventh batch of the COVID-19 vaccine, reaching as many as 16 million (doses) in bulk form," Deputy Health Minister Dante Saksono Harbuwono noted in his press statement when the vaccine consignment arrived at the Soekarno-Hatta Airport.
With the arrival of 16 million doses of the vaccine, Indonesia now cumulatively has 53.5 million semi-finished doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine, transported aboard a Garuda Indonesia aircraft, will be brought directly to the PT Bio Farma Persero office in Bandung of West Java for further processing.
"Of course, after being produced, an evaluation of the quality will be conducted by BPOM (Food and Drug Supervisory Agency) before it is finally administered as a vaccine to the public," Harbuwono stated.
Harbuwono highlighted the importance of vaccine availability in the implementation of the ongoing vaccination program in Indonesia. The government has been striving to expedite vaccination according to the quantity of the available semi-finished vaccine.
"We will continue to increase the speed per day to reach 181.5 million vaccines to achieve the target of herd immunity as quickly as possible," he asserted.
The arrival of 16 million semi-finished doses of the vaccine is the seventh batch of the COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Indonesia. The first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine was delivered to Indonesia on December 6, 2020. Some 1.2 million doses of the finished vaccine were manufactured by Sinovac.
In the second batch, the government again received as many as 1.8 million doses of the finished vaccine manufactured by Sinovac on December 31, 2020.
Subsequently, on January 12, 2021, the government brought in 15 million doses of the semi-finished Sinovac vaccine that were then processed by PT Bio Farma Persero. In the fourth batch, 10 million doses of the Sinovac semi-finished vaccine also arrived in the country on February 2, 2021.
Thereafter, on March 2, 2021, the government also received the shipment of 10 million doses of Sinovac’s semi-finished COVID-19 vaccine, with the last one being 1.1 million doses of the finished vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca that arrived in Indonesia on March 8, 2021.
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Indra Arief Pribadi, Katriana
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
