TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) chairperson Penny Lukito on Monday’s press conference revealed that the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine that was clinically tested in Bandung scored 65.3 percent.

“The analysis on the coronavirus vaccine efficacy from the clinical trials in Bandung was 65.3 percent. Meanwhile, Turkey reported 91.25 vaccine efficacy and Brazil at 78 percent,” said Penny in the virtual press conference on January 11.

Penny asserted that the results complied with the World Health Organization (WHO) minimum requirement of vaccine efficacy of 50 percent. This basically means there is a 65.3 percent chance that the Sinovac vaccine has a 65.3 percent probability of reducing COVID-19 spread.

“Suppressing the number of COVID-19 infections with the vaccine will be extremely meaningful in our efforts to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis apart from other preventive measures such as wearing face masks, washing hands, and physical distancing,” said the BPOM chairperson.

The BPOM has evaluated the test results conducted in Brazil and Turkey of the same vaccine and claimed it showed the ability to provoke an immune response in the body or immunogenicity.

Penny revealed that the vaccine 99.74 percent formed antibodies during the first 14 days with zero positives while after three months of clinical trials there were 99.23 percent immunogenicity and zero positives.

Read: BPOM Grants Emergency Use Authorization for Sinovac Vaccine

FRISKI RIANA