Indonesia’s Islamic authority is set to have a pivotal role in the country’s vaccination drive, which the government is hoping would begin as early as the end of this year.
The Health Ministry said in a press briefing today that three vaccine makers have pledged some 18.1 million doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines that may be administered to around 9.1 million people — since most vaccines require that each person get two shots each — by the end of the year.
All of this year’s vaccines in Indonesia will reportedly come from Chinese pharmaceutical firms. Sinovac, which is carrying out advanced stage trials of its vaccine candidate in West Java, has pledged 3 million doses, Sinopharm has pledged 15 million doses, while CanSino has pledged 100,000 single-shot vaccines.
“We hope everything is set, meaning that the supply [of the vaccines] is ready and we have a commitment from the vaccine makers. We are awaiting an EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) from BPOM (The Food and Drugs Monitoring Agency) and a halal certificate from MUI (Indonesian Ulema Council),” Health Ministry Disease Prevention and Control Director General Achmad Yurianto said today.
“We’re hoping that we will inject people with vaccines by the end of November.”
MUI will undoubtedly be key in setting the narrative for any COVID-19 vaccine in the world’s most populous Muslim country. The nation’s leading clerical body was notably instrumental in helping to thwart off anti-vaxxers in 2018, who rejected the measles and rubella vaccine because it contained trace amounts of pork by-products, which are forbidden for consumption by Muslims. MUI argued then that necessity for the vaccine outweighed any concerns for sin and approved the vaccine for administration.
The government has said that all COVID-19 vaccine candidates do not contain ingredients that may make them forbidden for Muslims, and MUI has also assured that it will likely certify any COVID-19 vaccine halal to speed up its distribution nationwide.
The government is aiming for at least 70 percent of Indonesians to be vaccinated within a couple of years, which it said was the threshold to achieve herd immunity by vaccination.
