ZCZC
BFF-25
HEALTH-VIRUS-INDONESIA-VACCINES
Indonesia leader gets nation’s first coronavirus jab
JAKARTA, Jan 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Indonesian President Joko Widodo
received the country’s first Covid-19 jab Wednesday, as the sprawling
archipelago of nearly 270 million kicked off a mass vaccination drive to
clamp down on soaring case rates.
The 59-year-old leader, better known as Jokowi, was inoculated on live
television at the state palace in Jakarta along with his health minister and
several senior officials, as well as business and religious leaders.
“I don’t feel it at all,” he said with a laugh after receiving a dose of
the Chinese-developed CoronaVac, the first of two required.
“This vaccination is important to break the chain of coronavirus infections
and to give health protection to all of us, and safety and security for all
Indonesians,” Jokowi told reporters, adding that it would “also help speed up
the economic recovery”.
Domestic regulators had this week approved the CoronaVac shot, produced by
Sinovac, announcing that its efficacy stood at 65.3 percent, according to
tests performed in Indonesia.
Tests done in hard-hit Brazil showed the Sinovac jab was highly effective
in staving off moderate to serious virus cases. But overall, it was only
about 50 percent effective in preventing patients from contracting the
disease.
While the vaccine has reached the minimum efficacy target of 50 percent set
by the World Health Organization, it is well behind the shots developed by
Moderna at 94 percent and Pfizer-BioNTech at 95 percent.
This week, Muslim-majority Indonesia’s top religious body also approved the
vaccine as halal — meaning permissible under Islam — in a move that could
help convince wary citizens.
Previous vaccination drives have met resistance among some segments of the
country’s huge population, the world’s fourth-largest.
Health workers and other at-risk groups will get priority under an
ambitious plan to inoculate nearly 182 million people over the next 15
months.
The Southeast Asian nation has also signed deals for nearly 330 million
vaccine doses from a string of pharmaceutical companies including
AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Chinese suppliers such as Sinopharm.
Indonesia has reported nearly 850,000 Covid-19 cases and close to 25,000
deaths, but low testing rates mean the public health crisis is believed to be
much bigger than the figures suggest.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1446 hrs