The Ministry of Health temporarily suspends certain batches of AstraZeneca

400,000 doses of AstraZeneca batch CTMAV547 have arrived in Indonesia.

medialnews, JAKARTA – The Department of Health (Kemenkes) has reported the temporary suspension of the distribution and use of the AstraZeneca CTMAV547 vaccine lot. The termination of certain AstraZeneca batches was carried out pending the results of the investigation and the BPOM tests.

Health Ministry spokesperson Dr Siti Nadia Tarmizi said the AstraZeneca vaccine is considered safe for the community, so there is no cause for concern. However, the Ministry of Health chose to be vigilant and stopped the distribution and use of lot CTMAV547.

The results of investigation and testing performed by BPOM on lot CTMAV547 are estimated to take one to two weeks. Currently, the batch of CTMAV547 totals 448,480 doses and is one of the 3.852 million doses of AstraZeneca that Indonesia received on April 26, 2021 as part of the Covax Facility / OMS program. This lot was distributed to TNI and partly to DKI Jakarta and North Sulawesi.

Regarding the serious post-immunization follow-up report (KIPI) which is suspected to be related to lot CTMAV547, Komnas KIPI recommended BPOM to perform sterility and toxicity tests on this group. Indeed, the existing data are insufficient to determine the cause of the diagnosis and the classification of the proposed AEFI.

“This is a form of warning from the government to ensure vaccine safety. The health ministry urges the public to stay calm and not get carried away by the hoaxes going around. The public is expected to always have access to information from reliable sources, ”Dr Siti Nadia Tarmizi said in a statement received by the Republika on Sunday (16/5).

He added that the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine continues as the Covid-19 vaccine brings greater benefits. So far, based on data from Komnas KIPI, there has never been an incident of death of people as a result of the Covid-19 vaccination in Indonesia. In some of the previous cases, people who died after being vaccinated were due to causes other than the vaccines they received.