Indonesia had submitted a vaccine request form to COVAX Facility, a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan that aims to help buy and fairly distribute vaccines, co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), said the country’s Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi on 7 December.

Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi. (Photo: VNA)

Retno said during a press briefing that aside from bilateral efforts to secure vaccines, her ministry along with the Health Ministry and Finance Ministry “were in contact with Geneva” for multilateral vaccine procurement.

The submission has been done on 7 December, on the imposed deadline, she noted.

With more steps to be carried out before the end of 2020, she expressed hope that vaccines secured through this multilateral initiative could arrive in stages in Indonesia next year.

Indonesia is among the 92 nations listed in the GAVI COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC), an innovative financing instrument that will support the participation of 92 low- and middle-income economies in the COVAX Facility.

Retno said this would allow Indonesia to receive vaccines from the facility for 3 to 20 percent of the country's population.

This vaccination programme involves 10,134 community health centers, 2,877 hospitals, and 49 port health offices.

Meanwhile, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said he has instructed the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Economy to prepare a budget to buy COVID-19 vaccines to be administered to Cambodians free of charge.

As now some countries have produced and put the vaccine into use and will be selling to other countries as well, he said he has recommended the Minister of Health to discuss with development partners, especially the World Health Organization, to determine from which country Cambodia should buy the vaccine.

He added that he has instructed the Minister of Economy and Finance to prepare a budget for the purchase of 1 million vaccines in the first phase to be given to those who work in high-risk areas and front liners.

As of 7 December evening, Cambodia’s national tally of COVID-19 rose to 349, of which 33 are connected to the latest community outbreak.

Source: VNA