JAKARTA -Spokesperson for the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Teuku Faizasyah, confirmed that the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Indonesia today, March 8, 2021. The vaccine developed by a British pharmaceutical company will come in ready-to-use form.
The arrival will be broadcast live via the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel beginning at 6:25 p.m. “That’s right,” said Faizasyah via a text message to Tempo today morning.
However, Faizasyah said that he did not know the exact number of doses of the vaccine that would arrive today. “I do not know the exact amount. It is likely to come in several deliveries,” he added.
Previously, President Joko Widodo or Jokowi announced that Indonesia would receive 4.6 million doses of the UK’s vaccine this March. The number would increase the total vaccine to 42.6 million doses.
To date, Indonesia has secured 38 million Covid-19 vaccines. Of which, 3 million of them were in finished form and 35 million in the form of raw materials that were further processed by state-owned pharmacy PT Bio Farma.
The government hoped that the arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine would speed up the vaccination target of inoculating 60-70 percent of the population or 181.5 million people.