Govt Targets to Make COVID-19 Vaccines Available by End of 2020
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28 July 2020 15:53 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The coordinating ministry of economic affairs on Tuesday, July 28, announced that it is eyeing to make the COVID-19 vaccine available before the end of this year at around September or November 2020.
“Before the end of this year, hopefully in September, October, or November, we can start to provide a vaccine so that by next year we can gradually work normally while the economy also recovers,” said the head of the coordinating ministry’s assistance team, Tirta Hidayat, in Tuesday’s online seminar.
He asserted that the availability of the vaccine from a number of producers is the main solution to recover the country’s economy and to break the chain of COVID-19 infection.
However, Tirta noted that this effort would need a large number of vaccines in a short period of time, for example, 10 million vaccines per month. “Fulfilling the need of 200 million population would require 20 months. That would be too long and vaccines cannot just be given once.”
Indonesia’s Covid-19 mitigation and economic recovery efforts are handled under a committee that is overseen by the coordinating ministry of economic affairs led by Minister Airlangga Hartarto.
The development of the vaccine is being done jointly by state-owned pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma together with China’s Sinovac Biotech.
Read: President Jokowi Promises COVID-19 Mass Vaccination in 2021
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