"What will happen to the IndoVac vaccine after the (COVID-19) pandemic subsides? We want it to be a multi-strain vaccine," Basyir remarked in Subang District, West Java, on Saturday.
Basyir noted that despite the COVID-19 pandemic having subsided, the IndoVac vaccine is projected to become part of the national health system in Indonesia.
"Thus, the future development of IndoVac will lean towards national security," he stated.
Bio Farma will also develop an IndoVac vaccine that can be used for children aged three to six years.
He remarked that the COVID-19 pandemic had changed people's lives while pointing out that even when the pandemic is almost over, people's economy had not fully survived it yet.
Basyir emphasized the need for collaboration among various relevant parties in order to expedite recovery from the pandemic.
He assessed that one of the real forms of collaboration is how Indonesia has been able to distribute over 400 million vaccine doses to 17 thousand islands across the country amid the pandemic.
He further said that as a life science company, Bio Farma continues to improve its production capacity to meet the needs of the country to boost the resilience of national pharmaceuticals.
IndoVac is a locally-made COVID-19 vaccine that was launched by President Joko Widodo on October 13, 2022.
As part of the efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 234,666,020 citizens.
According to data provided by the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of January 20, 2023, as many as 204,153,399 Indonesians have received the first vaccine dose, 174,975,201 have been administered the second dose, 69,121,956 have taken the third dose or first booster, and 1,226,364 have received the fourth dose or second booster.
Translator: Ajat Sudrajat, Raka Adji
Editor: Sri Haryati
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