Jakarta – Indonesia received 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine from the global vaccine procurement program Covax on Monday afternoon.

Indonesia is among developing countries entitled for free vaccine supply under the UN-backed scheme.

It was the first Covid-19 vaccine other than China's Sinovac vaccine to arrive in the country, which has administered more than 3.3 million doses since mass inoculation drive against coronavirus began on Jan. 13.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the government has lobbied for vaccine through the global scheme since October last year.

"The vaccine that we just received is the initial delivery from the first batch of vaccine assistance through this multilateral scheme. Indonesia will receive a total of 11,704,800 doses of vaccine throughout the first batch," said Retno, who co-chairs the advanced market commitment engagement group at Covax.

She told a news conference at the airport that first batch deliveries will continue until May. "Indonesia fully supports the principle of equal access to vaccine for all," Retno said.

Indonesia is currently in the second stage of vaccination drive targeting essential workers and elderly citizens. The first rollout of the vaccine targeting 1.4 million health workers has been completed late last month.

The government has been aggressively procuring Covid-19 vaccine since six months ago and already reached supply deals on more than 300 million doses with various sources.

Sinovac has agreed to supply 125 million doses of vaccine, a vast majority of which will be produced by Indonesia's state-run pharmaceutical company Bio Farma. Indonesia also bought 50 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-receives-11-million-doses-of-astrazeneca-vaccin