AstraZeneca vaccine. (Image via BBC)

1.1 million AstraZeneca vaccine in Indonesia for elderly and public workers

Indonesia's Health Ministry stated that 1,113,600 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines from the British-Sweden pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca-Oxford, would be used for the second stage of the government vaccination program. Currently, the second stage of the vaccination aimed to inoculate 21.5 million elderly and 17.4 million workers of public services.

The news was confirmed by the Spokesperson of COVID-19 Vaccination at the Health Ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, on Tuesday. Nadia explained that according to the latest studies and clinical trials, AstraZeneca is safe to use for the elderly aged 60 and above. Therefore, Nadia hoped that AstraZeneca would slow the COVID-19-related mortality rate in Indonesia, dominated by the elderly.

The delivery of AstraZeneca's vaccine will be done in two stages. The first quarter at 25-35 percent, and the rest at the second quarter. For the first batch, Indonesia will have received 11,740,800 AstraZeneca's vaccines by May 2021.

Previously, the Indonesian Government determined four vaccine brands for the free vaccination program. These are Sinovac (China), AstraZeneca (U.K-Sweden), Pfizer-BioNTech (U.S-Germany), and Novavax (U.S). Meanwhile, two more vaccine brands, Sinopharm (China) and Moderna (U.S), are confirmed to be reserved for independent vaccinations.

About 181.5 people are targeted to receive COVID-19 vaccination jabs in order to achieve herd immunity. To achieve the target, Indonesia requires around 425 million vaccine dosages.

Source: https://bit.ly/3elcr7j