TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The talks between President Jokowi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a recent high-level conference call have resulted in 10-15 million additional doses of the COVID-19 Sinovac vaccine.

“We will get additional supplies of the Sinovac vaccine this month amounting 10-15 million doses for April-May as the result of a discussion between President Jokowi and President Xi Jinping,” said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in an online press conference, Monday, April 26, 2021.

With the additional supplies, Budi asked regional heads in the country's 34 provinces to increase their daily vaccination targets. “We previously pulled a brake [in administering vaccines] because of a lack of supplies,” he added.

Previously, the number of daily vaccination targets was lessened to 250,000-300,000 from the initial 500,000. According to Budi, the reduction was due to the prediction of declining vaccine stocks to 8-10 million doses from the initial stocks of 15 million doses in April.

“The vaccination target in this fasting month has decreased by around 250,000-300,000 but this is also caused by the supplies. Because we first expected to secure 15 million doses of vaccine in April but the figure would probably drop to around 8-10 million doses,” said Budi in a webinar on COVID-19 vaccination broadcasted via the Indonesian Medical Association’s (IDI) YouTube channel on Sunday, April 18, 2021.

Read: Health Minister: COVID-19 Vaccine Supply from China Runs Smoothly

DEWI NURITA