Indonesia Suspends AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine Inoculation

On the afternoon of the 15th, medical staff are demonstrating the preparation of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine at the COVID-19 vaccination center set up in the main auditorium of Seongdong-gu Office in Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Indonesia has announced that it will postpone the administration of AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccines.

According to Antara News on the 15th, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health, appeared before the National Assembly and stated, "To take a conservative approach, the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency has postponed the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine until confirmation is received from the World Health Organization (WHO)."

Indonesia began COVID-19 vaccinations on January 13 and is currently only using the vaccine from China's Sinovac.

Indonesia agreed to receive a total of 11.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the vaccine procurement and distribution facility COVAX, and on the 8th of this month, it received the first batch of 1,113,600 doses.

The Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring Agency immediately approved the emergency use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but postponed vaccinations after reports of blood clot cases following AstraZeneca vaccinations in Europe.

Currently, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Iceland, Bulgaria, Ireland, and others have temporarily suspended vaccinations for some or all batches of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

AstraZeneca stated the previous day, "After carefully reviewing all possible safety data for approximately 17 million people vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, there is no evidence that the risk of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis, or thrombocytopenia is increased in any specific age group, gender, vaccine batch, or any particular country."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.