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Indonesia delays rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine
Indonesia is delaying the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca pending a review by the World Health Organization (WHO).
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A vendor shows his COVID-19 vaccination card after being inoculated at Melong Market in Cimahi, West Java, on Feb. 24. Market vendors are high up in the government’s vaccination drive, because their work exposes them to a relatively high risk of coronavirus transmission. (Antara/Raisan Al Farisi)
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ndonesia is delaying the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca pending a review by the World Health Organization (WHO) into concerns about blood clots, a move that experts say could affect its ambitious vaccination targets.
The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) is liaising with the WHO and the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) to decide whether to use the AstraZeneca vaccine in the government’s mass vaccination program.
“Hopefully, [we will have clarity] soon, because the vaccines [we have already received] have an expiration date of late May,” Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told lawmakers at a hearing on Monday.
Indonesia joins Denmark, Norway, Ireland, the Netherlands and other countries that have also suspended usage of the AstraZeneca jab in their inoculation programs. Thailand, however, which previously announced a similar move, said on Monday it would resume its inoculation drive using the AstraZeneca vaccine, Reuters reported.
The spokesperson for the Indonesian government’s national vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said that, amid the temporary halt of vaccination using the AstraZeneca jab, the BPOM would reassess the criteria of the vaccine’s recipients and the optimum inoculation timeframe.
“Yesterday [Monday], the WHO said the optimal time frame for the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was nine to 12 weeks [after the first jab],” Siti said on Tuesday. “With this recommendation, we will determine which groups of people will be given the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
Read also: Indonesia receives first AstraZeneca vaccines under COVAX facility
