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Indonesia slows down vaccine rollout amid delayed supplies
Indonesia is rationing its vaccine use in response to expected delays in shipments from AstraZeneca and a slowdown in the production of Sinovac, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said, as the ongoing inoculation drive for the most at-risk population, the elderly, lags far behind that for the productive-age population.
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A man shows his COVID-19 vaccination card at a state elementary school in Penggilingan, North Jakarta, on Feb. 25. Indonesia is targeting to inoculate some 21 million people aged 60 and above and 17 million public service workers in the second phase of the vaccination program, which started on Feb. 17. (Antara/Fakhri Hermansyah)
Indonesia is rationing its vaccine use in response to expected delays in shipments from AstraZeneca and a slowdown in the production of Sinovac, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said, as the ongoing inoculation drive for the most at-risk population, the elderly, lags far behind that for the productive-age population.
A shipment of 10 million vaccine doses from British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca under the multilateral Gavi-COVAX facility, which Indonesia initially expected to receive in March and April, might be delayed following an embargo by India, which largely produces the vaccine for the COVAX facility, Budi said.
India reportedly will prioritize the vaccines for domestic needs as infections rise.
Indonesia had yet to receive confirmation on the date of arrival, as officials continued to negotiate with COVAX, Budi said. The country has received 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine under the facility so far.
"We still have [China's] Sinovac [vaccine], but now we're forced to slow down the [inoculation program]," Budi said in a discussion on Saturday.
Budi estimated that the country would only have 7.6 million ready-to-use doses of Sinovac vaccine manufactured by state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma in April, when the company has to reduce production capacity for periodic maintenance of machines.
