Foreign Affairs Ministry Reveals Strategies to Secure Covid-19 Vaccine Supplies

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s secretary general, Cecep Herawan, in a House hearing on Tuesday revealed two main strategies it has set in securing Covid-19 vaccine supplies that will run in parallel to each other. 

“There are two main strategies that Indonesia will continue to conduct in parallel,” said Cecep in the hearing with House's Commission members on May 18.

The first approach is to establish a short-term international partnership, either bilateral or multilateral. The second plan is to establish a long-term strategy by backing the national vaccines development run by a national vaccine consortium.

Due to these strategies, Cecep said Indonesia managed to secure 75,950,500 Covid-19 vaccine doses that have arrived in the country. It comprised 68,500,000 from Sinovac, 6,410,500 doses from AstraZeneca thanks to the COVAX program, 500,000 Sinopharm doses for Indonesia’s private vaccine program touted as ‘gotong-royong,’ and another 500,000 Sinopharm shots donated by the United Arab Emirates.

He also revealed that there would be another 16 million Sinovac doses in bulk before the end of this week. Indonesia has also approached a number of countries to secure Novavax and Pfizer. 

Apart from Sinopharm, the Foreign Affairs secretary general revealed that the gotong-royong program has received commitments from Covid-19 vaccine producers such as Sputnik V, CanSino, and Anhui Zhifei Longcom.

The Covax Facility is also committed to provide free vaccines for 3-20 percent Indonesian population by the end of 2021. 

Read: Indonesia Covid-19 Vaccination Program Still Far from Target, Jokowi Says

FRISKI RIANA