The third batch of the US-donated 1,140,750 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Indonesia on Sunday.
Indonesia had earlier received 877,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Sept 16 and 1,755,000 vaccine doses of Pfizer on Sept 17 from the US through the COVAX global dose-sharing mechanism.
The fourth batch of 871,650 doses of the Pfizer vaccine is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia on Sept 23.
“If combined with the 8,000,160 doses of the Moderna vaccine that arrived in Indonesia, the US vaccine donations through the dose-sharing mechanism will total 12,645,060 doses,” Communication and Informatics Minister Johnny G. Plate noted in a written statement released on Sunday.
The newly arrived Pfizer vaccine is the 69th COVID-19 vaccine batch that Indonesia has received from abroad. In total, Indonesia has received 257,360,400 doses of the vaccine as of Sunday.
International cooperation, either bilateral or multilateral, played a major role in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, Plate emphasized while adding that Indonesia was also taking an active part in creating global COVID-19 vaccine equity.
“International cooperation is direly needed to prevent the emergence, growth, and spread of new variants,” he stated.
Plate affirmed that the Indonesian government had, since the onset, built and fostered diplomacy with several countries, which resulted in vaccine donation to facilitate the national vaccination program.
He believes that sufficient vaccine stocks would accelerate the national vaccination program.
Source: Antara News