Indonesia Suspends Use of One Batch of AstraZeneca Vaccine

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian government decided to pause the use and distribution of the CTMAV547 batch of AstraZeneca vaccine that arrived on April 26, 2021.

The Health Ministry spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the temporary suspension was to run toxicity and sterility tests by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM). “This is a form of caution by the government to ensure the safety of this vaccine,” said Nadia in a statement on Sunday, May 16. 

The vaccine use was suspended temporarily while waiting for the results of the investigation and tests conducted by BPOM which might take one to two weeks.

The National Commission on Post-Immunization Accidents (Komnas KIPI) previously recommended BPOM to run tests for sterility and toxicity on the vaccine batch as there was insufficient data to ensure the diagnosis and cause of the serious adverse event following immunization (AEFI) that was allegedly linked to AstraZeneca CTMAV547 batch. Previous reports also suggested that a 22-year-old man died a day after receiving the vaccine shot.

The CTMAV547 batch consists of 448,480 vaccine doses landed on April 26, 2021, and is part of the delivery of 3,852,000 vaccine doses from the Covax Facility supported by WHO. This vaccine batch had been distributed for Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers and to Jakarta and North Sulawesi.

However, the government ensured that other batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine are not affected and still safe for use. “The Health Ministry calls upon the public to stay calm and not fall into circulating hoaxes. People are expected to access information from reliable sources,” Nadia said.

Read: Man Allegedly Dies after Receiving AstraZeneca; Komnas KIPI Responds

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