China's Sinovac has sent raw materials to Indonesia sufficient for making 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country, media reported on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th January, 2021) China's Sinovac has sent raw materials to Indonesia sufficient for making 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country, media reported on Monday.
According to Antara news agency, an airplane loaded with the materials left Beijing on Tuesday morning and will land at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Indonesian Vice Ambassador to China Dino Kusnadi said that the vaccine doses would be developed and packed at Bio Farma plant in Bandung.
On Monday, the Indonesian National Agency of Drug and food Control (BPOM) approved the emergency use of the vaccine from Sinovac. According to BPOM Head Penny K. Lukito, this vaccine meets all the safety requirements of the World Health Organization. She said that interim data from late phase clinical trials in Indonesia showed a 65.3 percent vaccine efficacy.
Earlier in January, Head of the Ministry of Health of Indonesia Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that vaccination against coronavirus in the country would begin on January 13, with President Joko Widodo and members of the government to be vaccinated first. The country already received the first 3 million doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine in December.
