JAKARTA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua)--Indonesia appreciates the readiness of China to supply COVID-19 vaccines, and has also spoken highly of its willingness to openly share the technology behind it, an Indonesian government spokesperson has said.
"We're very grateful to Sinovac for supplying its 260 million doses. This number covers about 50 percent of the required doses. Indonesia aims to vaccinate 181 million people, or 70 percent of its population, to gain herd immunity. Bio Farma collaborated (with China's Sinovac) when testing the COVID-19 vaccine. We also collaborated on the transfer of the technology for downstream production," Indonesian government's spokesperson Bambang Heriyanto for COVID-19 vaccination told Xinhua.
Heriyanto, who's also corporate secretary of the state-owned vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma, also spoke highly of the cooperation between Sinovac and Bio Farma. Bio Farma has been assigned to produce and supply COVID-19 vaccines in the country, using technology shared by China's Sinovac. The partnership previously saw clinical trials carried out across Indonesia.
Heriyanto added that China's commitment to making the vaccine a global public good would help the world to curb the pandemic, saying that countries should work together to end the pandemic.
"We should answer the quality, safety and effectiveness. So, based on these three criteria, we will look which candidate vaccine that can be used in Indonesia. That is the first one. Then the second one is, of course, they have to be listed in the WHO recommendation. So why we consider (China's) Sinovac and Sinopharm as vaccines that can be used in Indonesia because those two conditions are met by these vaccines," another Indonesian government's spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination Siti Nadia Tarmizi said.
"The second thing I mention is the transfer of technology, because not all the vaccine factories will agree on the technology transfer, that is one thing that can give a point that we can see the willingness of the government of China to provide and be part of the global initiative to tackle this pandemic," She added. Enditem
