Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia on Friday (Aug. 27) received 5 million doses of ready-to-use Coronavac vaccines from China’s Sinovac, and 1,086,000 doses of AstraZeneca through a direct purchase scheme mechanism.

"With these vaccines, Indonesia has so far received 208.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine," Indonesian state-owned vaccine manufacturer Bio Farma's spokesperson Bambang Heriyanto in a written statement said here on Friday (Aug. 27).

The two vaccine brands were sent via Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang district, Banten province.

Bambang noted that so far, 123,256,044 vaccines have been distributed in the country.

That amount consists of 3 million doses of Coronavac; 1, 89,366,140 doses of Bio Farma's COVID-19 vaccine; 15,982,584 doses of AstraZeneca; 7,558,810, doses of Moderna; 6,848,644 doses of CoronaVac 2; and 499,866 doses of Sinopharm from a donation scheme.

Meanwhile, the number of vaccines distributed in Indonesia from August 1 to 26 has reached 36,631,654 doses.

Regarding the vaccination program, Professor of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Indonesia, Prof. DR. dr. Soedjatmiko welcomed Indonesia's global position which was ranked 6th in the number of vaccinated people, and 7th in the number of doses of vaccine administered.

Currently, more than 92.8 million Indonesians have received the second doses and the first doses of vaccines against COVID-19.

However, Prof. Soedjatmiko stressed the need for improvements calculating the need, delivery, and distribution of vaccines.

Meanwhile, an immunization expert, dr. Elizabeth Jane Soepardi said that at least 70 percent of the total population should be injected to achieve herd immunity to control the pandemic.

So far, the vaccination coverage in Indonesia has only reached 21 percent of the total population.

Dr. Jane said, given the limited number of vaccines, local administrations were expected to prioritize areas with the most COVID-19 cases in order to break the chain of virus transmission.

Generally, more COVID-19 cases were found in more densely populated areas with high mobility.

"In this way, the immunization coverage will automatically increase faster than if the vaccines were distributed evenly," said the doctor in health service research from Erasmus University, the Netherlands.

She also reminded that the Delta variant is far more contagious and more deadly.

"As many as 99 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States are those who have not been immunized, as well as those who are anti-vaccine and anti-mask groups," she said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window