The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has issued an emergency use authorization for Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine after interim results of its late-stage trials in the country showed an efficacy rate of 65.3 percent. This makes Indonesia the first country outside China to issue the emergency approval for the vaccine named CoronaVac, with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo scheduled to receive the first shot on Jan. 13. Around 1.3 million health workers are expected to follow suit in the first few months of the free vaccination program. The efficacy rate was derived from interim results after three months of monitoring in a six-month trial in Bandung, West Java, BPOM head Penny K. Lukito said on Monday. The figure is lower than rates of 91.25 percent and 78 percent, respectively, reported by Turkish and Brazilian authorities, which Penny said had als...