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Judul : Jokowi optimistic about COVID-19 vaccine development in
Indonesia

Nama Media : thejakartapost.com

Tanggal : 12 Agustus 2020
Halaman/URL : https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/08/11/jokowi-
optimistic-about-covid-19-vaccine-development-in-
indonesia.html

Tipe Media : Online

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Tuesday
voiced optimism about the COVID-19
candidate vaccine being developed in the
country.

“We have been developing our own vaccine
for the past three months, specifically from
the COVID-19 virus strain spread in
Indonesia. Hopefully the vaccine will be
ready soon and it [the vaccine development]
is expected to be completed by mid-2021,”
he said Tuesday at a ceremony to launch late-stage human trials of the vaccine
being developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd with Indonesian state-owned peer
Bio Farma at the Padjadjaran University (Unpad) School of Medicine’s hospital in
Bandung, West Java.

Twenty registered volunteers were injected with the potential vaccine for the first
time at the hospital of Unpad’s School of Medicine on Tuesday. The trial is expected
to finish in six months at the earliest and will require a total of 1,620 volunteers.

According to Bio Farma, 540 volunteers were gathered in the first phase of
registration, and 1,080 volunteers are expected to be enrolled in the second phase.

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil announced Monday that he had registered
himself as a volunteer for the trials, but was currently still waiting for confirmation.

Bio Farma envisioned gradual trials, with 120 volunteers scheduled to receive
injections by this week and 144 volunteers to take part in each of the following
weeks.

“We are proud that a state-owned enterprise [SOE] like Bio Farma in partnership
with Sinovac Biotech of China are able to begin phase III clinical trials. Not many
countries or institutions have been able to reach this stage,” SOEs Minister Erick
Thohir, who is also the head of the COVID-19 mitigation and national economic
recovery committee, said in a written statement on Tuesday.