Jokowi eyes to produce Merah Putih Vaccine end of 2021

JAKARTA: President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said the government was continually striving to obtain the Covid-19 vaccine from various countries. There was just one brand of vaccine that had arrived in Indonesia thus far, which was from China-based pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd.

“The government is working hard to obtain vaccines from various countries, but only one arrived. But we are still trying to get more from several countries,” said the President during a briefing to leaders of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police on Monday.

He argued that it was not easy to get the vaccines since the government had to compete with 215 countries that needed vaccination. He had also ordered related ministries and agencies to accelerate the development of home-grown Covid-19 vaccines, namely the Merah Putih or red and white vaccine.

However, the state head acknowledged that the process would take a long time yet targeted the production of domestic vaccines to kick off at the end of the year.

Jokowi continued that to achieve herd immunity or communal immunity, the government needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the total population or 182 million people. Each person must also receive two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine so that the program would require at least 364 million doses.