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JAKARTA, Oct. 4 (Jakarta Post / ANN): Indonesia reported 3,992 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the lowest daily increase in six days, bringing the total number of infections to 303,498, data from the Health Ministry showed. .
The death toll related to the coronavirus rose by 96 to 11,151, the highest number in Southeast Asia and among the highest in Asia.
With the death toll in sight, Muslim vice president and cleric Ma’ruf Amin has said that the Covid-19 vaccine currently being prepared by the government does not have to be halal, a spokesperson confirmed.
The vice president’s spokesman, Masduki Baidowi, said Maruf’s statement on Friday (October 2) came during a meeting with the coordinating minister for Maritime Affairs and Investments, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, on the progress of the vaccine he is currently developing. the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac in association with the state pharmaceutical company. PT Bio Farma.
“The vice president explained something important: if the vaccine is halal, then it is fine, no problem, but if it is not halal it is not a problem either,” Masduki said in a statement. “Because it is an emergency situation, it is okay to use (a non-halal vaccine).”
This statement appears to contradict an earlier statement made by Masduki in August, in which he said that the vice president had urged Bio Farma to ensure that the long-awaited Covid-19 vaccine was halal certified prior to distribution.
Masduki said that Ma’ruf, who is also currently the non-active chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), would ask a MUI team to go to Beijing to check whether the vaccine was halal or not.
“But that will not be an obstacle. Why? I reiterate once again that a non-halal [vaccine] in an emergency situation it is allowed, ”he said.
The halal status of vaccines had previously become an issue in 2018, during a government vaccination campaign against measles and rubella.
At that time, the MUI issued a fatwa declaring that the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine was mubah (allowed for Muslims) despite containing materials derived from pigs, because a halal vaccine had not yet been manufactured, which constituted a “sharia emergency”. . “
However, despite the fatwa, the Riau Islands chapter of the MUI still urged Muslims to reject the vaccine.
“If the MR vaccine is really that important, then we ask the government to quickly make one that is halal and safe for Muslims,” Riau Islands MUI secretary Ustadz Santoso said at the time. – The Jakarta Post / Asian News Network
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