16 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Arrive in Indonesia
The seventh arrival of COVID-19 vaccine at Soekarno Hatta airport in Tangerang city, Banten province, Thursday (25/03/2021). (Source: Screenshot of Presidential Secretariat YouTube Channel)
Sixteen million doses of Sinovac vaccine bulk Thursday (25/03) arrived at Soekarno Hatta airport in Tangerang city in Banten province.
“Today we managed to obtain the seventh batch of COVID-19 vaccine, consisting of 16 million (doses of) vaccine bulk,” Vice Minister of Health Dante Saksono Harbuwono told the press.
The arrival was the seventh one so far.
The COVID-19 vaccine first arrived on 6 December 2020 in the form of ready-to-use vaccine with a total of 1.2 million doses. On 31 December 2020, another 1.8 million doses of Sinovac-manufactured vaccine were obtained.
The third arrival was on 12 January 2021, carrying 15 million Sinovac vaccine bulks that were then processed by state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma. In the fourth batch, 10 million doses of Sinovac vaccine bulks arrived on 2 February 2021.
The fifth arrival on 2 March 2021 brought another 10 million doses of Sinovac-manufactured COVID-19 vaccine bulk. In the sixth batch, 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca ready-to-use vaccine arrived on 8 March.
“With the (addition of) 16 million doses, we now have 53.5 (million doses of) vaccine, bulk vaccine,” Dante said, adding that the vaccine bulk carried by national carrier Garuda Indonesia will be brought directly to Bio Farma factory in the West Java capital of Bandung for further processing.
“After the production, (the ready-to-use vaccine) will be evaluated in terms of quality by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency,” Dante stated, while expressing gratitude to security forces for successfully distributing vaccines.
“We would like to thank the Indonesian Defense Armed Forces and the Indonesian National Police who continue to oversee the process, from the arrival to the transfer to Bio Farma and distribution to every region in Indonesia,” he remarked. (UN) (DH/EP)
