Indonesian President Receives Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine To Launch Mass Immunization Program

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published January 13, 2021 | 12:51 PM

Indonesian President Joko Widodo received his first shot of a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by China's Sinovac on Wednesday, marking the launch of the country's mass immunization program

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th January, 2021) Indonesian President Joko Widodo received his first shot of a vaccine against COVID-19 produced by China's Sinovac on Wednesday, marking the launch of the country's mass immunization program.

Live footage of the vaccination was broadcast on Indonesian television channels.

The food and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) of Indonesia granted Sinovac's vaccine against COVID-19 emergency use approval on Monday. The Indonesian government has 125 million doses of the Chinese-developed vaccine on order, and 3 million doses have been delivered so far.

BPOM chief Penny Lukito announced on Monday that the Sinovac vaccine was 65.

3 percent effective during late phase clinical trials conducted in Indonesia.

Jakarta is also in talks with Moscow over the potential purchase of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya research institute, an official at the Russian Embassy in Indonesia told Sputnik on Tuesday.

Since the start of the pandemic, more than 846,000 cases of COVID-19 have been registered by public health officials in Indonesia, including the 10,047 new positive tests added to the case total on Tuesday.