Before being retired, Achmad Yurianto spoke about the acquisition of the Covid-19 vaccine

Bisnis.com, JAKARTA – Suddenly, Acmad Yurianto was removed from his post as Director General of Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases of the Ministry of Health or Director General of P2P this afternoon.

The retreat was carried out by the Minister of Health, Terawan Agus Putranto. The former Spokesperson for the Covid-19 Working Group was transferred to become Expert Personnel of the Minister of Health. It is not yet known when the official appointment of Yuri, as he is often called, as expert staff will be.

“The ministerial staff [kesehatan]”said Yurianto when it was confirmed about his dismissal as quoted in Tempo.co, Friday (10/23/2020).

Before the news of his dismissal was known, this afternoon Yuri was still answering questions from journalists about the acquisition of the Covid-19 vaccine. Deal questioned about the acquisition of the AstraZeneca vaccine, due to the information circulating that the Ministry of Health canceled the vaccine from the British company.

Yuri confirmed that the Ministry of Health had no contractual ties with AstraZeneca regarding the purchase of the Covid-19 vaccine. According to him, the agreement signed with the vaccine company is a Letter of Intent (Lol) on October 14, 2020.

LoI is a company promise to appoint another company to perform work based on a contract that is being drawn up. Contractually, the LoI is not a binding instrument for the parties. “We just signed the LoI,” Yuri said this afternoon.

According to Yuri, after the signing of the LoI, it should be followed by a review by the team of experts, so that they do not immediately sign the purchase contract or provide an advance payment. “If the study is not finished, what are we going to do?” added.

Plus there’s the fact that the AstraZeneca vaccine volunteers died in Brazil. This is included in the study by the team of experts from the Ministry of Health, so there is no decision yet on whether Indonesia will buy the vaccine. For information, the US has also canceled its procurement of AstraZeneca vaccines.

Yuri’s statement was different from the expectations of the Coordinating Minister of Economy who was in charge at the same time. President of the Committee for the Management of Covid-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPCPEN) Airlangga Fed up.

Airlangga hopes to have access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, so that the target population to be vaccinated will increase from the initial age range of 18-59 years to 15-70 years.

The age range of 18 to 59 years depends on the Sinovac vaccine, which is currently in clinical trials in Bandung. Sinovac is committed to providing a supply of 40 million doses of CoronaVac products from November to March 2021.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has allocated 100 million doses of vaccine. However, the government must pay a 50 percent advance due at the end of this month. The total cost of acquiring the vaccine is $ 500 million.

According to Airlangga, so far the government has collaborated with four vaccine producers, namely Sinovac, Sinopharm / G42, Cansino and Astra Zeneca. “Apart from international cooperation, the Government is also developing an independent route, namely the Red and White Virus,” he added in a quoted press release. Deal today.

The total number of vaccine candidates with the potential to provide around 300 million doses. That amount is intended for around 160 to 185 million people. “This figure is still very dynamic because it is still in the finalization stage and depends a lot on the availability of vaccines.”

LIVE AUDIT

Also, regarding the Sinovac vaccine, Yuri said that the team from the Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM), the Ulema Council of Indonesia (MUI) and the Ministry of Religion were still waiting to conduct a direct audit on the vaccine factory.

The reason is that they must first undergo 14 days of quarantine. “The team in China is still working. We have not received their results,” he said.

Regarding Brazil that withdrew to buy the Sinovac vaccine, Yuri said that the departure of the team of experts from the three institutions also wanted to investigate and its safety and halality.

So can the Sinovac vaccine be distributed in November in Indonesia? “Where is the result? If the result is not available yet, we will talk. It depends on the result there,” Yuri replied.