We are waiting for instruction from the Health Ministry to distribute the vaccine.
Bandung, W Java (ANTARA) - State-run pharmaceutical firm PT Bio Farma awaits the Health Ministry’s instruction to distribute AstraZeneca’s 3.85 million vaccine doses, the second batch supply of the COVID-19 vaccine from the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical firm, based in Britain.

"We are waiting for instruction from the Health Ministry to distribute the vaccine," Bio Farma's Corporate Secretary, Bambang Heriyanto, noted in a statement here on Tuesday.

On March 3, 2021, the company had received 1,100,000 doses of the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine and distributed them to regions.

In its second batch, the company had obtained 3,852,000 doses of the vaccine packaged into 38,520 boxes.

"After receiving the second batch supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine, we will keep them in a special storage and maintain the temperature between two and eight degrees Celsius," Heriyanto, concurrently the government's spokesman on vaccination, stated.

With the delivery of the second batch, the government, as of Tuesday, received a total of 67,465,600 doses, including Sinovac's vaccine.

The AstraZeneca vaccine is obtained under a multilateral cooperation scheme of the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the vaccine alliance GAVI, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Foreign Affairs Minister Retno L. Marsudi stated that the government had continued to meet the local demand for the COVID-19 vaccine while simultaneously seeking equal vaccine access for all nations.

"Since the start of the pandemic until now, the Indonesian government has sought available vaccines to meet its domestic demand while fighting for equal access to the vaccine for all countries," Marsudi reiterated. Related news: Indonesia receives 3.8 mln AstraZeneca shots under COVAX scheme
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Translator: Ajat Sudrajat, Sri Haryati
Editor: Suharto
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