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Indonesia approves first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine

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Agence France-Presse 

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Police personnel receive COVID-19 vaccine shots from a health official at the police headquarters in Surabaya, Indonesia on Feb. 23, 2021. Juni Kriswanto, AFP/File " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/afp/09/30/20210223-covid-vaccine-indonesia-cops-afp.jpg"/><figcaption>Police personnel receive COVID-19 vaccine shots from a health official at the police headquarters in Surabaya, Indonesia on Feb. 23, 2021. <em>Juni Kriswanto, AFP/File </em></figcaption></figure></div><p>JAKARTA — Indonesia has approved its first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, the head of the country&#x27;s public health agency said Friday, hailing it as a step toward &quot;the nation&#x27;s independence in access to medicine&quot;.</p><p>Jakarta has stressed the importance of developing national vaccines since the beginning of the pandemic but it currently relies on China&#x27;s Sinovac and the Western-made Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA jabs. </p><p>The IndoVac jab, developed by state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma and Texas-based Baylor College of Medicine, can now be used as a primary dose for an unvaccinated or partially vaccinated adult in the world&#x27;s fourth most-populous country.</p><p>&quot;The development... of a domestic vaccine is a pride for us Indonesians as a foundation and as the first step to achieve the nation&#x27;s independence in access to medicine,&quot; head of the national food and drugs agency (BPOM) Penny Lukito said at a press conference Friday.</p><p>The medical chief said IndoVac had shown an efficacy rate of 92 percent, while there were no reports of death linked to it in trials and reported side effects were &quot;generally mild&quot;. </p><p>A clinical study to use it as a booster jab is underway, Lukito said.</p><p>The agency also announced it had granted emergency use approval for an mRNA vaccine developed in China, becoming the first country to do so. </p><p>The inoculation developed by Walvax Biotechnology will be locally produced in Indonesia, the BPOM chief said.</p><p>The homegrown IndoVac jab has been granted a halal certificate, meaning it can be administered in line with the Islamic faith in Muslim-majority Indonesia.</p><p>Indonesia became the epicenter of Asia&#x27;s COVID-19 pandemic in July last year as the delta variant swept through the country. </p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/07/07/21/indonesia-in-oxygen-emergency-as-delta-variant-wreaks-global-havoc">Indonesia in oxygen emergency as Delta variant wreaks global havoc</a></li></ul><p>Daily cases declined significantly by the end of the year but the spread of Omicron brought confirmed cases back to 30,000 a day. </p><p>It has since seen another sharp fall in case numbers and eliminated quarantine requirements for vaccinated travelers.</p><p>In total, Southeast Asia&#x27;s largest economy has reported over 6.4 million confirmed cases with nearly 160,000 deaths. </p><p>Vaccination rollout has also been relatively slow compared to developed nations, with less than two-thirds of the population of 270 million receiving 2 jabs.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/09/20/22/doh-not-yet-seeing-end-of-covid-19-pandemic">DOH not yet seeing end of COVID-19 pandemic</a></li></ul><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong> FROM THE ARCHIVES: </strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1728335" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Indonesia has approved its first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. 