JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia has approved Sinovac Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine for the elderly, according to a letter from the Food and Drug Administration, possibly changing the country’s strategy to prioritize its working population first.
The strategy was due in part to limited information on the safety of the vaccine for the elderly, authorities said.
The Food and Drug Administration (BPOM) said in a letter to Reuters that it approves the use of Sinovac’s CoronaVac for the elderly, given the emergency situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and the limited information on the benefits and safety of that vaccine ”.
It was sent to Sinovac’s Indonesian partner, Bio Farma, in state ownership.
Wiku Adisasmito, spokesman for the country’s COVID-19 task force, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
Bio Farma confirmed that it had received the letter but did not provide further details.
An explosion of Sinovac’s vaccine in Indonesia last month involved 3 million doses and was aimed at medical workers and government officials.
The government’s data show that almost 800,000 received their first shot, but authorities said they would produce 25 million more by the end of March.
Indonesia, which has suffered more than 31,000 deaths from COVID-19, aims to vaccinate more than 180 million people, or about two-thirds of its population of 270 million, within a year.
Several countries such as the United States and Britain that have already started vaccinations give preference to the elderly who are more vulnerable to the respiratory disease.
The Indonesian Ministry of Health declined to comment, although he said the elderly would receive the vaccine by April.
China’s Sinovac said on Saturday that CoronaVac had been approved for use by the general public by China’s medical regulator.
A Phase I and II trial in China showed that the vaccine could safely trigger the immune response for older participants, but Sinovac warns that the information for the protection rate among people 60 years and older is “limited”.
“When the relevant institutions … use this vaccine, the need for vaccination of this product should be evaluated taking into account the health status and exposure risk of this age group,” he said.
Pandu Riono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia, said that “if we want to stop the number of hospitalizations, we must pursue immunization for the elderly.”
Additional reporting by Maikel Jefriando, Fathin Ungku; edited by Jason Neely