Minister Ensures the Safety of 9 Covid-19 Vaccines Available in Indonesia
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Non Koresponden
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Laila Afifa
Sabtu, 11 September 2021 19:51 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government asserted that all Covid-19 vaccines used in Indonesia have obtained the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (POM), so the people should not be worried on its safety. The Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny Plate, asked for the people to immediately get the Covid shots to protect themseleves and the others.
"The various Covid-19 vaccines available in Indonesia are part of the government's attempts in securing vaccines availability [in the country]. The world is in need of this vaccines, and Indonesia needs over 400 million doses. Therefore, the government attempted to get the vaccines from various producers," said the minister in written statement Saturday, Sept. 11.
BPOM on September 7, has issued an EUA for Janssen vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson. The trial to the recipients of above 18 years old showed the efficacy of 67.2 percent to protect against all Covid-19 symptoms and 66.1 percent protection from medium and heavy Covid symptoms.
On the same day, BPOM also issued the EUA for Convidecia vaccine developed by CanSino Biological Inc. and Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The efficacy to protect from all covid symptoms is 65.3 percent, while for severe symptoms is 90.1 percent.
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Janssen and Covidecia vaccines become the 8th and the 9th vaccines that have been authorized for the emergency use by BPOM this year. The previous vaccines include Sinovac, Bio Farma covid vaccine, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sputnik V.
"Of the nine vaccines, six have been used in Indonesia," Plate said.
An immunization expert, Elizabeth Jane Soepardi, supports the government to expand the vaccination coverage, especially in regions with the highest Covid-19 infection. High population areas with high mobility are considered to be prone of higher Covid-19 infection.
"This way will automatically increase the immunization coverage compared to distributing the available vaccine evenly," said the doctor from Erasmus University, the Netherlands.
Jane also reminded about the delta variant with its vast and quick transmissibility, and also more deadly.
The public is hoped to understand that vaccination will prevent them from showing a severe health condition due to Covid-19 infection of the Delta variant. "99 percent of positive cases in the U.S. happened to those who have yet get the covid shots, the anti-vaxxers, and anti-masks," Jane remarked.
Read: Indonesia Receives 500,000 Janssen Covid-19 Vaccines from Dutch Govt
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