JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo announced on Wednesday (Dec 16) that he will be the first recipient of a Covid-19 vaccine in Indonesia and the vaccination will be available free to all Indonesians.
"I want to emphasise once again that I will become the first one to be vaccinated. This is to build trust and certainty among the public that the vaccines are safe," he said in an address from the presidential palace live-streamed on YouTube.
Mr Joko, 59, also said that after receiving a lot of suggestions and recalculating state finances, he decided the vaccines would be free for Indonesians.
"I've ordered the Finance Minister to prioritise (the vaccination programme) and reallocate (the state budget) to provide free vaccines so there's no reason that the people can't access them," he said.
An online survey by the Health Ministry found out that around 64.8 per cent of participants were keen to receive vaccination once the vaccines are made available to the public, while 27.6 per cent were doubtful about the government’s vaccination plan and almost 7.6 per cent rejected it.
Only 35 per cent of those wanting to get the shots were willing to pay for them, while 38 per cent would not want to pay and the rest were undecided.
The survey, involving more than 115,000 participants across the archipelago, was carried out along with the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation from Sept 19 to 30 with support from Unicef and the World Health Organisation.
It has targeted 246 million doses to cover 107 million people, or 67 per cent of the target group, representing nearly 40 per cent of its total population.
Sinovac and Novavax are set to help fulfil 155.5 million doses. Indonesia is in talks with other manufacturers, such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Covax, to source the rest.
A roll-out date will be set after its drug monitoring agency BPOM gives emergency use authorisation, which is expected early next year.
Under its current plan, Indonesians working on the front line in the battle against the pandemic, such as healthcare workers, the police and military personnel, are set to get the shots first.
This strategy is in contrast with that of other countries that have begun providing the vaccines to the elderly and vulnerable first, such as Britain, which began its vaccination programme with a 91-year-old woman last week.
The United States kicked off its vaccination programme this week, in line with the recommendation from its Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to provide vaccines to healthcare workers and residents of nursing homes, followed by people with pre-existing medical conditions.
Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said earlier that the elderly, those with existing health issues and pregnant women are not put on Indonesia's priority list for the vaccination programme because it does not have the data to guarantee the vaccine's safety for them. The Sinovac shots were tested only on people aged between 18 and 59 years old.
Indonesia has recorded 636,154 Covid-19 cases and 19,248 deaths as of Wednesday, the worst on both counts in South-east Asia.
JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo has volunteered to be the first person in the country to receive COVID-19 vaccine.
He also said that the vaccines will be available to citizens at "no fee whatsoever" in a video uploaded on the State Palace’s YouTube channel on Wednesday (Dec 16).
The country had received 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech on Dec 6 and is set to receive raw materials to produce 15 million doses from the same company later this month.
The CoronaVac vaccine, however, is still in its late-stage trials in Indonesia as well as Brazil, Chile and Turkey. Indonesia’s Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) will only give its stamp of approval on the vaccine's quality, safety and effectiveness when the clinical trial results are out.
In a government survey in September, about 65 per cent of the respondents said they were willing to be inoculated. However, only 35 per cent of those who said they wished to be vaccinated were willing to pay.
Mr Widodo, known popularly as Jokowi, said in the video: “I will personally become the first recipient (of the vaccine) to boost trust among the people that the vaccines used are safe.”
The government had earlier planned to offer the vaccines for free to around 32 million health workers, military and police personnel, as well as civil servants, while the rest of the people would have to pay to have themselves inoculated.
Indonesia has a population of over 260 million.
The decision had drawn criticism, with some people highlighting the fact that other countries are providing the vaccines for free.
“After receiving inputs from citizens and after we conducted recalculation regarding state coffers, I can say that COVID-19 vaccines for citizens will be free. Free and no fee whatsoever,” Jokowi said.
“Therefore, I instructed all Cabinet members, ministries, agencies and regional governments to prioritise vaccination in their 2021 budget. I also instruct the finance minister to prioritise and reallocate other expenses to ensure the availability of these free vaccines so there will be no reason for people not to get vaccinated.”
BPOM, the food and drug agency, has said that the earliest the vaccine can be administered is when the clinical trial results are known by the end of January.
Apart from vaccines from Sinovac Biotech, Indonesia is also working with US drug maker Pfizer, British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and global vaccine programme COVAX.
Indonesia is one of the worst countries to be affected by the pandemic with more than 600,000 cases and close to 20,000 deaths.
TOKYO: A major Japanese cosmetics firm faced online boycott calls on Wednesday (Dec 16) after its CEO used a racial slur for Koreans, and boasted his firm was "pure Japanese".
DHC's Yoshiaki Yoshida made the comments in a message on the company's website in which he attacked rival Suntory, a major beverage manufacturer that competes with DHC in the health supplement sector.
"For some reason, the models hired for Suntory's commercials are almost all Korean-Japanese. So that's why it seems they're mocked on the Internet as 'Chontory'," he wrote.
"Chon" is a derogatory term for Koreans in Japan, widely regarded as discriminatory.
Yoshida went on to write that DHC's employees by comparison were all "pure Japanese".
Discrimination against Koreans in Japan goes back decades, against a backdrop of tense ties between Seoul and Tokyo over issues related to wartime history.
The post was published last month, but only caught the public's attention this week, causing anger among many Japanese Twitter users, who began using the hashtag "I no longer buy products from discriminatory DHC".
The firm, which also operates in South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
"I can no longer trust the products of such a company. I'm against discrimination!" one Twitter user wrote.
"They can't do business without discriminating against minorities, consumers and other firms? I'll say no to such a shallow company," wrote another.
Japan has laws against hate speech, but a justice ministry official contacted by AFP said it would only intervene if a formal complaint was filed.
"The ministry's primary policy on the issue is to launch campaigns against hate speech in general," he said.
During Tokyo's 1910 to 1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, millions of Koreans moved to Japan, either voluntarily or against their will.
When Japan surrendered at the end of World War II, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans remained, and many suffered discrimination and hardship.
The social media reaction against DHC comes after a recent Nike advert highlighting racism and bullying in Japan - including against a child wearing a traditional Korean outfit - also caused a stir online.
Although the advert had been liked more than 91,000 times on Nike Japan's YouTube channel by Wednesday, it had also been disliked by over 69,000 viewers.
Some accused Nike of anti-Japanese sentiment, and even called for a boycott of its products.
Japan remains a fairly homogeneous country, and mixed-race children can often face prejudice, although attitudes among younger generations are changing.
As more Covid-19 vaccines approach the finish line, producers face new hurdles South China Morning PostView Full coverage on Google News
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNjbXAuY29tL25ld3MvY2hpbmEvc2NpZW5jZS9hcnRpY2xlLzMxMTQxNDIvYWZ0ZXItY29yb25hdmlydXMtcmVzZWFyY2gtcmFjZS12YWNjaW5lLXByb2R1Y2Vycy1mYWNlLW5ld9IBcmh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnNjbXAuY29tL25ld3MvY2hpbmEvc2NpZW5jZS9hcnRpY2xlLzMxMTQxNDIvYWZ0ZXItY29yb25hdmlydXMtcmVzZWFyY2gtcmFjZS12YWNjaW5lLXByb2R1Y2Vycy1mYWNlLW5ldw?oc=5
JAKARTA: Indonesia has received 1.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech on Dec 6 and is set to receive raw materials to produce 15 million doses from the same company later this month.
The arrival of the first batch of CoronaVac is part of a deal between Indonesia and Sinovac as the country has been testing the vaccine in a late-stage clinical trial since August.
Another 1.8 million doses of the jabs are expected to be sent to Indonesia by January the latest, followed by raw materials to produce 30 million doses of the vaccine in the same month.
The deal guaranteed Indonesia priority access to the technical know-how on producing the vaccine, so that its state-owned pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma can produce the jabs with the raw materials.
Bio Farma is the country's only vaccine producer and has been partnering with the University of Padjajaran to conduct the trials in Southeast Asia’s biggest country. Late-stage trials of the Sinovac vaccine are also being carried out in Brazil, Chile and Turkey.
“There will also be a transfer of technology. So, the ones that will be marketed (in Indonesia) will be those manufactured at Bio Farma, meaning it will carry Bio Farma's brand,” Bio Farma’s head of clinical trials Rini Mulia Sari had said back in August during a media briefing at the company’s headquarter in Bandung city.
Workers unload a container containing experimental coronavirus vaccines made by Chinese company Sinovac from the cargo bay of a Garuda Indonesia plane at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, on Dec 6, 2020. (Indonesian Presidential Palace via AP)
About 1,620 volunteers have taken part in the clinical trial since August which is scheduled to last over a period of six months.
The latest development comes as Indonesia prepares for a mass vaccination to stop the spread of COVID-19 in the archipelago which has so far infected more than 600,000 people and caused more than 19,000 deaths.
After the first batch of the vaccines reached Indonesian shores, officials have shed light on the next few steps before people can be inoculated.
WHERE ARE THE VACCINES NOW?
Immediately after the 1.2 million Coronavac vaccines arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, which serves Greater Jakarta, they were sterilised.
The jabs were subsequently stored in seven cold storage containers and then delivered to Bio Farma’s headquarter in Bandung.
Workers spray disinfectant over a container containing experimental coronavirus vaccines made by the Chinese company Sinovac, upon arrival at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia on Dec 6, 2020. (Indonesian Presidential Palace via AP)
About 1,168 police and military personnel escorted the vaccines until they arrived in the capital city of West Java province.
It is now stored at Bio Farma in special coolers in a room with a temperature of 2 to 8 degree Celsius.
Police and military personnel are also guarding the vaccines at the headquarters.
President Joko Widodo said he was thankful about the arrival of the vaccines.
“This means we can immediately prevent the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak," he said in a televised speech on Dec 6.
However, mass vaccination can only be carried out after the clinical trial results are out and the country’s food and drug agency BPOM gives its stamp of approval on the vaccine's quality, safety and effectiveness.
"Scientific considerations and the results of clinical trials, these will determine when vaccination can be started," said Jokowi, as the president is popularly known.
WHAT NOW?
Out of the 1.2 million single doses from Sinovac, 568 vials have been allocated for a quality test conducted by Bio Farma and BPOM, said Bio Farma’s president director Honesti Basyir on Dec 8.
As BPOM waits for the results of the clinical trial in Indonesia and other countries, which are expected to be known by the end of January, the government has started to make preparations on the distribution of vaccines across the archipelago.
Pharmaceutical company Bio Farma is conducting the late-stage human trial of Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine candidate in Indonesia. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
This included getting the supporting equipment and human resources ready and finalising vaccination management.
“We have been preparing this for several months through simulations in several provinces, and I’m sure once it has been decided that vaccination can start, everything is ready,” said Mr Widodo in his Dec 6 televised speech.
Since it is impossible to vaccinate everyone simultaneously, the president said, the public should take note of the announcement and instructions from the authorities.
The government is targeting to inoculate 107 million people aged 18 to 59 through two schemes. Indonesia has a population of over 260 million.
The first programme which the Ministry of Health is overseeing, is free for about 32 million people, while the second under the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprise is a paid programme for about 75 million citizens.
Health workers, military and police personnel, as well as civil servants who provide direct public service are among the groups which belong in the first scheme.
Workers in the private sectors are among those categorised in the second group.
“The data collection process is carried out in an integrated manner through the One Data Vaccination Information System for COVID-19, which is coordinated by the Ministry of Communication and Information,” said Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto last Thursday (Dec 10) at the parliament.
The system will not only filter eligible vaccine receivers, but also serves as government and independent vaccine registration application, which maps the supply and distribution of the vaccines.
It will also monitor the results of the vaccination.
WHEN CAN INDONESIANS BE VACCINATED?
BPOM, the food and drug agency, has said that the earliest the vaccine can be administered is when the clinical trial results are known by the end of January.
If the data look well and there are no problems, BPOM can grant authorisation for an emergency use intended for health workers.
Indonesia's state-own enterprise Bio Farma is the only vaccine producer in the country. (Photo: Kiki Siregar)
For this to happen, the vaccine’s effectiveness rate must be at least 50 per cent, according to BPOM.
Meanwhile, a non-emergency authorisation and vaccination for other priority groups can most likely start in February or March, the agency explained.
Although Mr Putranto had explained that 30 per cent of the target group will get the jabs for free, the parliament has suggested to increase the percentage of people who do not have to pay.
Health ministry's director and spokesperson for the vaccination programme Siti Nadia Tarmidi told local media that Java and Bali islands will be prioritised since they are the most populated regions in the country and are COVID-19 hotspots.
MORE VACCINES TO COME
Apart from vaccines from Sinovac Biotech, Indonesia is also working with US drug maker Pfizer, British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca and global vaccine programme COVAX.
Chief of the economic recovery task force Budi Gunadi Sadikin told parliament last Thursday that it has also secured deals with another US firm, Novavax Inc, and is planning to hold talks with Moderna, which is Massachusetts-based.
The country is also currently developing its own vaccine Merah Putih named after the colours of the Indonesian flag.
Mr Putranto, the health minister, said in the parliament last week that about 246 million doses of vaccine are needed for the two vaccination programmes.
Mr Sadikin added that the government has so far secured 125.5 million doses from Sinovac and 30 million from Novavax.
Indonesia is also looking at purchasing 50 million doses each from Pfizer and AstraZeneca, he added.
An Indonesian volunteer of the Sinovac Biotech trial, who wished to only be known as Rizky, told CNA he is quite happy that there is a vaccine.
“Because this is a sign that the government is serious in handling this pandemic. There is no country which wants to continuously experience this pandemic,” he said.
Under the trial, each volunteer is given two shots. Half of them would be injected with the vaccine candidate while the other half would get a placebo, and they would only be informed of which they were administered in March.
Mr Rizky said he has taken two shots and has not felt any side effects so far from participating in the clinical trials.
FILE PHOTO: A worker performs a quality check in the packaging facility of Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, developing an experimental coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, during a government-organized media tour in Beijing, China, September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Despite the arrival of the vaccines, epidemiologist from the University of Indonesia Pandu Riono warned against complacency.
“Don’t be euphoric just yet,” said Mr Riono.
“We are buying vaccines without knowing its effectiveness,” he told CNA.
The health expert said that vaccines serve as a secondary prevention measure to stop the spread of the disease.
The primary prevention strategy is still wearing masks, washing hands, conducting safe distancing, and performing aggressive testing and case tracing.
“Don’t rush things. A vaccine is not the only solution,” he said.
ATLANTA: US President-elect Joe Biden spoke with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday (Dec 15) and said that the two agreed to meet soon, after the lawmaker ended his silence on the results of the presidential election held six weeks ago.
McConnell congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory during remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday, a day after the Electoral College formalised the Democrats' Nov 3 win.
The senator was among many congressional Republicans who had not acknowledged Biden's defeat of President Donald Trump, who has continued to make unfounded claims of election fraud and refused to concede.
Biden told reporters he spoke with McConnell before heading to Georgia, where he will campaign for two Democratic US Senate candidates whose Jan 5 runoff elections could make or break his domestic policy agenda.
"While we disagree on a lot of things, there are things we can work together on," Biden told reporters. "We agreed to get together sooner (rather) than later."
Democratic Electoral College elector Steve Henson looks at his signed vote for Joe Biden for president of the United States in the Georgia State Senate chambers in the Georgia State Capitol building in Atlanta on Dec 14, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Elijah Nouvelage)
Hours after their call, McConnell told reporters that lawmakers would not leave Washington this year until they have agreed on a new coronavirus economic relief package. Top US congressional leaders are meeting on Tuesday as they seek to finalise a government funding bill and end a standoff on economic relief.
McConnell and his top deputies pressed other Senate Republicans not to join with any House Republicans who may object to the election outcome when Congress meets on Jan 6 to ratify the decision.
Any such effort to challenge the results is almost certain to fail since it would require approval by both chambers, including the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Biden and Harris will be sworn in on the steps of the US Capitol on Jan 20 with far fewer people present than is customary due to the raging coronavirus that has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States, the inaugural planning committee said on Tuesday.
Festivities will be largely virtual, and the committee urged members of the public to refrain from travelling to Washington.
BIDEN CABINET PICKS
Biden has pressed ahead with building his Cabinet, with word of more picks emerging on Tuesday.
He has chosen Pete Buttigieg, his former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, to lead the US Transportation Department, according to three people familiar with the matter. Buttigieg, 38, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would be the first LGBTQ person nominated to Biden's administration and, if confirmed, the first LGBTQ Cabinet secretary approved by the Senate.
US Representative Deb Haaland of New Mexico is Biden's leading choice to head the Interior Department, according to three sources familiar with the proceedings, a selection that would make her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency.
Biden's trip to Atlanta comes nine days after Trump travelled to Georgia in support of the Republican senators seeking re-election.
Biden's narrow win in Georgia last month underscored the Southern state's transformation from Republican stronghold to one of the country's most competitive political battlegrounds. That was illustrated again with more than 480,000 ballots cast after the first full day of in-person early voting and mail voting, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.
Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are facing Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively, in twin races that will determine which party will control the US Senate.
If the Republicans win either contest, they would maintain power in the Senate, allowing them to thwart many of Biden's ambitious legislative goals on issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, the economy and climate change.
A Democratic sweep would give Biden's party control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Democrats already hold a majority in the House of Representatives.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said in a statement that Warnock and Ossoff "represent the left-most fringe" of the Democratic Party and that Biden campaigning for them showed he was under the influence of that wing of the party.
Biden said on Tuesday that he planned to get the coronavirus vaccine "sooner than later" and reconfirmed his commitment to take it publicly.
Both parties in Georgia face turnout challenges in the midst of the pandemic and without the polarising Trump at the top of the ballot to turn out voters from his deeply loyal supporters, as well as from detractors with deep animosity toward him.
KUALA LUMPUR - Following weeks of uncertainty, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's first federal budget - the biggest in the country's history - cleared a final hurdle to be ratified by Parliament on Tuesday (Dec 15), after surviving a parliamentary vote.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin's Perikatan Nasional government was backed by 111 MPs, compared with 108 MPs who voted against it, after a bloc voting procedure was triggered by the opposition.
The RM322.5 billion (S$105 billion) budget will now be sent to the Upper House, the Senate, to be ratified, before coming into effect.
However, Upper House approvals are generally a formality in the Malaysian legislature.
The victory for Mr Muhyiddin comes on the back of renewed doubts regarding his majority in the week preceding the final budget vote.
Earlier this week, speculation was once again rife that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had managed to secure the backing of several government MPs from Umno to undo Mr Muhyiddin's majority. But this was subsequently denied by Datuk Seri Anwar's faction, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh, the longest serving MP in Umno - the biggest component of Mr Muhyiddin's government - had called the PN administration "illegitimate" and said he would not back the budget.
But Mr Tengku Razaleigh's move did not appear to have a bearing on the voting pattern of other Umno lawmakers, showing that PM Muhyiddin still retained the support of at least 111 MPs in the 220-member house, following the death of two lawmakers earlier this year.
The opposition Pakatan Harapan decided not to call for bloc voting during the policy-stage vote for the budget last month. But on Tuesday they decided to challenge the budget twice in quick succession through division voting.
PH called the budget as a document that did not achieve its own objectives and urged even government lawmakers to vote it down.
But on both occasions, the outcome was the same, with the government obtaining 111 votes to the opposition's 108. Only one MP, Tengku Razaleigh, was absent.
The voting pattern also showed that all MPs who were present in the lower house had voted according to party lines.
Dr Mahathir on Monday urged lawmakers to vote according to their conscience and not party lines. "The MPs should think about the country first, not about themselves," Dr Mahathir had said at a joint news conference with Tengku Razaleigh.
The budget victory would likely solidify Mr Muhyiddin's grip as chief executive of the country for the immediate future.
Despite consistent questions regarding his majority since assuming the post of prime minister in March, Mr Muhyiddin's government has managed to pass a coronavirus relief bill, and now the federal budget in Parliament.
This is despite Mr Muhyiddin's majority never being debated or put to a vote in Parliament.
Mr Muhyiddin's majority has never been debated or put to a vote in Parliament. PHOTO: REUTERS
Numerous confidence and no confidence motions have been filed against Mr Muhyiddin, but none of them have seen the light of day in Parliament, where government Bills are prioritised.
This meant that the Bills in Parliament acted as a barometer of PM Muhyiddin's parliamentary support.
The budget victory comes just over a week after tensions between Mr Muhyiddin's Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Umno saw the fall of the Perak state government.
