Some 10 million domestic COVID-19 vaccines have started to be administered to the targeted population this November to meet the demand for booster dose, Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated.

“This November, we expect to be able to use five million doses of domestic vaccine, and there will be another five million doses in December,” he noted.

“Thus, the total (number of) vaccines that we can purchase and use this year reaches 10 million doses,” he remarked during the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission IX Work Meeting streamed online, Tuesday.

Most of the domestic COVID-19 vaccines will be utilized to provide booster dose to the public, he noted.

These domestic COVID-19 vaccines include the IndoVac vaccine with recombinant protein subunit platform developed by State-run Pharmaceutical Company PT Bio Farma in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine, USA.

The other domestic COVID-19 vaccine comprises the InaVac with inactivated virus platform developed by the researcher team from Airlangga University in cooperation with PT Biotis Pharmaceutical Indonesia.

The government purchased 3.6 million doses of the IndoVac vaccine and 1.5 million doses of InaVac vaccine in November 2022 to cover the target of 4.94 million booster doses.

The vaccine purchase continues in December 2022, with 1.4 million doses of IndoVac vaccine and 3.5 million doses of InaVac vaccine, to meet the target of more than 5.11 million doses.

During the event, Sadikin also highlighted that the demand for booster dose COVID-19 vaccination rises once again after the emergence of the Omicron XBB subvariant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

The minister remarked that domestic COVID-19 vaccine stocks still reached around six million doses and estimated to last until the next 100 days.

Source: Antara News