Indonesia Defers Application Of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine

JAKARTA, March 16 (Bernama) -- Indonesia has delayed a proposal to use the COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca following reports that the vaccine causes blood clot. Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin when speaking in Parliament was quoted by local media as saying that Indonesia would now wait for the report of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The move was taken after Ireland and Netherlands also postponed the usage of the vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca. Indonesia was earlier scheduled to receive 1.1 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by the end of March while 10 more million doses expected to arrive at the end of April. So far, Indonesia is using the vaccine produced by Sinovac of China and country is targeting to vaccinate more 182 million people in the republic. Based on the data published in the official Twitter site of the Indonesian National Board for Disaster Management @BNPB as at yesterday, Indonesia recorded 1.42 million COVID-19 cases while 1.24 million have recovered. The vaccination process which began on January 13, has so far seen more than 4.1 million recipients of the first vaccine while the second vaccine involved more than 1.5 million people. -- BERNAMA