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By Stanley Widianto
JAKARTA, April 8 (Reuters) - Indonesia is in talks with
China on getting as many as 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses
to plug a gap in deliveries after delays in the arrivals of
AstraZeneca shots, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on
Thursday.
He told a parliamentary hearing that Indonesia would receive
20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via a bilateral deal
in 2021, instead of 50 million doses initially agreed.
The remaining 30 million doses were due to be shipped by the
second quarter of 2022, he said.
Budi said the government had "embarked on a discussion with
the Chinese government to ask for an additional 90-100 million
(doses)".
"We're also asking for vaccines from the U.S. when they're
done with their own vaccinations and sell their vaccines
overseas."
Besides AstraZeneca, Indonesia relies heavily on vaccines
produced by China's Sinovac Biotech for coronavirus
inoculations which began in January. It aims to reach 181.5
million people within a year in a bid to reach herd immunity.
Sinovac has supplied about 56 million doses so far.
Indonesia was also slated to receive 54 million doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine in phases via the COVAX sharing scheme,
though Budi said Indian export restrictions would delay
shipments in April.
"That's something that we cannot accept and we're
negotiating with AstraZeneca. So that's 100 million doses of
vaccine whose schedule remains unclear," he said.
AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.
Indonesia has also launched a private vaccination programme
to allow companies to buy government-procured vaccines and
inoculate staff for free.
State-owned company Bio Farma had started negotiations with
China's Sinopharm and Cansino, along with the producer of
Russia's Sputnik V, for vaccines for the private programme, Bio
Farma chief executive Honesti Basyir told the parliamentary
hearing.
The Southeast Asian country has been struggling to control
one of Asia's worst epidemics, having reported more than 1.54
million coronavirus cases and 42,000 deaths as of Wednesday.
Indonesia has administered at least one vaccine shot to more
than 9.22 million people.
European and British regulators said on Wednesday they had
found possible links between AstraZeneca's vaccine and very rare
cases of blood clots, but reaffirmed its importance in
protecting people against COVID-19.
(Additional Reporting by Nilufar Rizki
Editing by Ed Davies and Nick Macfie)
