INDONESIA RECEIVES CHINA’S SINOVAC VACCINE, UK READY FOR THE FIRST JABS ON TUESDAY

Mon 07 December 2020:

Indonesia on Sunday received its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine from China, its president announced.

“I want to convey the good news that today the government has received 1.2 million doses from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd.” Joko Widodo told an online news briefing.

The vaccine has gone through clinical trials in the archipelago country, he said, adding that the government is working to secure another 1.8 million doses by early January.

Health Ministry Agus Putranto on Dec. 3 shortlisted six COVID-19 vaccines for possible use in Indonesia: state-owned PT Bio Farma, Oxford’s AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, and China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Total confirmed cases in the country of 270 million people have reached 575,796 with 17,740 deaths, the highest in Southeast Asia, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

Britain’s vaccine distribution under way

Batches of the Covid vaccine have begun to arrive in hospitals around the UK, ready for the first jabs on Tuesday in what NHS England’s medical director warned would be the largest and most complex vaccination campaign in the country’s history.

The UK’s record-breaking approval of the vaccine and the rapid start of immunisation against Covid-19 did not mean the end of the pandemic was in sight, said Prof Stephen Powis. It would be a marathon and not a sprint, he said.

“It will take many months for us to vaccinate everybody who needs vaccination,” Powis said on Sky News.

The UK has bought 40m doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which is enough for 20 million people, but most will arrive next year. The deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, said 4m doses were expected before the end of the year.

“It is important that people wait to be contacted by the NHS to have their vaccine. There is a rigorous, large-scale exercise already well under way by all the hospital hubs with local partners to identify and contact people who will be first in line. This will help ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible,” she said.