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HEALTH-VIRUS-INDONESIA,LEAD
Indonesia ‘delays’ rollout of AstraZeneca jab: health minister
JAKARTA, March 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Indonesia will delay the rollout of
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 jab pending a review by the World Health Organization
(WHO) into blood clot fears, the Southeast Asian nation’s health minister
said Monday.
“To be conservative, (Indonesian health regulators) are delaying the
implementation of AstraZeneca while waiting for confirmation from WHO,” Budi
Gunadi Sadikin told parliament.
The move comes after Ireland and the Netherlands became the latest
countries to suspend AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 shots over blood clot concerns
despite the drugmaker and the WHO insisting there is no risk.
AstraZeneca is one of just a handful of coronavirus vaccines being rolled
out globally — and as one of the cheapest on the market is crucial to
ensuring poorer countries have access to the jab.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth most-populous nation, received 1.1 million
doses of the AstraZeneca jab this month with another 10 million more expected
by late April.
So far, the sprawling archipelago has been relying on a jab developed by
China’s Sinovac as it rolls out an ambitious plan to inoculate more than 181
million of its nearly 270 million people within a year.
Indonesia is one of the hardest-hit countries in Asia with more than 1.4
million infections and nearly 39,000 deaths, although the true toll is
thought to be higher.
BSS/AFP/RY/1940hrs