Jakarta – Indonesia received the fifth batch of COVID-19 vaccines from Sinopharm on Monday to help tackle an exponential spike in coronavirus cases in the country.
“Indonesia again received 1,184 thousand doses, or 592 thousand vials of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Sinopharm,” Verdi Budidarmo, president director of state-owned pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma, said in an online press conference streamed via the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube Channel.
The vaccines arrived in Indonesia on a Garuda Indonesia flight (number GA891) on Monday afternoon, he informed.
Overall, the vaccines were the 28th batch received by the country under the mutual help vaccination program, he said.
Verdi said the fifth batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines was received as part of a cooperation contract between PT Kimia Farma and Sinopharm for 15 million vaccine doses under the mutual help vaccination program.
“So far, we have received 5.5 million doses from Sinopharm,” he informed.
The procurement of the Sinopharm vaccines is a part of efforts to achieve the target of administering 20 million shots under the mutual help vaccination program in 2021, he said.
The mutual help vaccination is an additional option for employees, their families, and related parties to access vaccines provided by companies, he added.
It is also part of efforts to achieve a daily vaccination target of 2 million people to build herd immunity in the country quickly, he said.
“It is also intended to protect foreign nationals who are assigned or reside in Indonesia (from being exposed to the virus),” he added.
Source: Antara News