Indonesia to get more COVID-19 vaccine doses from China

JAKARTA, Indonesia

Indonesia will get additional doses of COVID-19 Sinovac vaccine from China, and AstraZeneca from the Global Vaccines and Immunization Alliance (GAVI), the country's health minister said on Monday.

Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the additional supply of Sinovac vaccine doses is the outcome of a high-level discussion between President Joko Widodo and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

"There will be additional Sinovac vaccines, including 10 million to 15 million doses for April and May," Sadikin said in a virtual news conference.

He said the Foreign Ministry has also been effective in renegotiating additional vaccines from GAVI through the COVAX Facility scheme, which was previously delayed due to an embargo in manufacturing countries.

"Next month there will also be two more deliveries of 3.8 million doses each from the COVAX," he noted.

With these additional doses, Sadikin said Indonesia can speed up the inoculation rate, which was slowed down due to vaccine shortages.

The number of vaccines administered this month dropped to around 300,000 doses a day, down from a half-million doses per day last month, according to the Health Ministry.

India blocked exports of AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in the country after a spike in COVID-19 cases, Sadikin explained why the vaccine campaign was being slowed.

"Now, vaccine supply in May is quite a lot, soon we will return the pace as before," the minister added.

At least 18 million people to date have received jabs against COVID-19 in the country, according to official data.

*Writing by Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo with Anadolu Agency's Indonesian language services in Jakarta.