Jakarta – Indonesia welcomed another shipment of 8 million Covid-19 vaccines in bulk from the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac on Monday.

The shipment came in four large temperature-controlled containers – or envirotainers – and one smaller envirotainer. The half-finished vaccines are also sent off to Bandung, West Java, later processed by Sinovac's Indonesian counterpart Bio Farma.

Altogether, the combination of finished and bulk vaccines set foot in Indonesia has reached 91.9 million doses. Of that number, 75.9 million doses are ready-to-use after taking into accounts the wastage and overfill during the bottling process, State-Owned Minister Erick Thohir said.

So far, Indonesia has received 10.4 million ready-to-use shots, including 3 million doses from Sinovac, 6.41 million Astrazeneca doses, and a million Sinopharm doses – out of which the UAE donated 500,000 Sinopharm shots.

Indonesia has also received 81.5 million doses of Sinovac's bulk vaccines from Sinovac. Once processed by Bio Farma, it will bring the number to 65.5 million finished shots.

"In total, Indonesia has secured 75.9 million ready-to-use doses," Erick, who is also the chief executive to the Covid-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery Committee (KPCPEN), said at Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang on Monday.

In his statement, Erick highlighted the government's commitment to secure and ramp up the vaccine supply. "We should be grateful that despite the global vaccine supply disruption, our supply is safe and increasing."

The minister also spoke of Indonesia's efforts to produce its very own Covid-19 vaccine – dubbed as the Merah Putih vaccine – for self-sufficiency.

"The government is working alongside several developers, including universities and research institutes, as well as other parties. We want to produce our own vaccines, so it would not just be imported [vaccines]," he said.

Indonesia so far has administered a total of 26.85 million doses. Erick noted the speed-up and expansion of the Covid-19 vaccination scope and compliance to health protocols would save lives and spur economic recovery.

"So we can achieve economic growth of 4.1 percent to 5.1 percent in 2021. We are working towards a healthy Indonesia, a working Indonesia, and a growing Indonesia," Erick said.

"If God wills, our hard work will pay off by the end of this year or early next year. Hopefully, we will see progress in our Merah Putih vaccine or vaccines that are in cooperation with other parties."

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/special-updates/indonesia-welcomes-another-8m-doses-of-sinovac-bulk-vaccine