TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As many as 175,833 Indonesians received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, taking the number of fully vaccinated people to 14,443,813, the COVID-19 Response Task Force reported.

Meanwhile, the number of people receiving their first COVID-19 dose rose by 863,768 to reach 34,039,797, it said.

The Indonesian government, which has stepped up efforts to accelerate the vaccination of citizens to build herd immunity against the virus and to put an end to the pandemic, has set a target of inoculating 40,349,049 people in the first and second phases of the national vaccination program.

Overall, the government is seeking to vaccinate 181.5 million citizens, or 70 percent of the country's population.

The Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) recently issued emergency-use authorization (EUA) for COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna in Indonesia.

The issuance of the EUA was based on the results of a study conducted by an expert team from the COVID-19 Vaccine Appraisal National Committee and the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI).

BPOM chief Penny K Lukito said the EUA for the Moderna vaccine is a permit issued by the agency for emergency use of the fifth COVID-19 vaccine.

BPOM has earlier issued EUAs for the CoronaVac produced by Sinovac Life Sciences China, the Sinovac vaccine produced by PT Bio Farma, the AstraZeneca vaccine obtained via the Covax facility, and the Sinopharm vaccine obtained from the Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products.

Read: Still Rising; Indonesia Records 34,379 New Cases, 1,040 Deaths

ANTARA