Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – As many as 1.1 million doses of ready-to-use AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang district, Banten province, on Monday.

The vaccine made by the British and Swedish multinational companies was sent from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, by Dutch flagged carrier KLM.

"Today, Indonesia receives the first shipment of AstraZeneca ready-to-use vaccine totaling 1,113,600 doses, with a total weight of 4.1 tons consisting of 11,136 boxes," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a press statement welcoming the arrival of the vaccine at Soekarno-Hatta Airport.

That amount is the first batch of vaccine shipments via the multilateral COVAX Facility, she added.

The COVAX facility is a multilateral partnership that aims to ensure everyone around the world receives the COVID-19 vaccine.

The cooperation scheme was initiated by the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund).

Indonesia is one of the co-chairs of the multilateral vaccine cooperation program COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) Engagement Group (EG), which has 92 members.

"In the first batch, Indonesia will get 11,704,800 doses of ready-to-use vaccine. The delivery of the first batch will be carried out until May 2020 and God willing, it will be followed by the next batches," said Foreign Minister Retno.

The arrival of the AstraZeneca vaccine is the sixth shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine for Indonesia.

Earlier, on December 6, 2020, a total of 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine produced by China’s company Sinovac arrived in Indonesia. Then, in the second phase on December 31, Sinovac delivered another 1.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

On January 12, 2021 or the third phase, Sinovac sent 15 million doses of vaccine in bulks, which were then further processed by Indonesia’s state-owned vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma.

In the fourth phase on February 2, Sinovac sent 10 million doses of vaccine in bulks, and in the fifth phase on March 2, the company dispatched another 10 million doses of vaccine in bulks.

Reporting by Indonesia Window