THE first batch of Covid-19 vaccine ordered from China's Sinovac Biotech arrived in Indonesia, marking a new phase in the country's fight against Southeast Asia's worst outbreak.
As many as 1.2 million doses of the vaccine arrived late on Sunday and the government expects to receive another shipment of 1.8 million doses in early January, according to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
Sinovac will also ship raw material for 45 million doses of the vaccine, which Indonesia's state pharmaceutical firm PT Bio Farma will process locally, Widodo said in a statement.
Besides Sinovac, the government has orders with at least three other vaccine suppliers, including AstraZeneca, whose shots are in late-stage trials.
Indonesia has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia at 569,707, and more than 17,000 people have succumbed to the disease.
The government aims to provide free vaccination for as many as 120 million Indonesians at a cost equivalent to 0.5 per cent to 1 per cent of gross domestic product through 2022, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said last month. – Bloomberg