Jakarta. A team from the Food and Drug Control Agency, or BPOM, left for China on Thursday to inspect production process at three Covid-19 vaccine factories, from which Indonesia has secured a supply commitment.

The team will visit the production sites of Sinovac, Sinofarm and Cansino vaccines to make sure that they are high in quality for the intended use and manufactured in compliance with good manufacturing practice, according to BPOM’s drug registration director Lucia Rizka Andalusia.

“The team also comprises officials from the Health Ministry, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and state-run pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma,” Lucia said in a video conference.

The Indonesian government has secured a supply of those vaccines, including 143 million doses of Sinovac vaccine, 15 million doses of Sinofarm and 100,000 doses of Cansiono for shipments starting from late December.

The vaccine will first go to 3.4 million people in the priority group, which includes medical workers and law enforcement officers. 

The government has targeted to vaccinate 135 million people in 2021, each will receive two doses of the vaccine.

Indonesia is recruiting 1,620 volunteers for the phase 3 of Sinovac vaccine clinical trial in the West Java capital of Bandung.

Earlier on Sunday, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said the government has struck a deal to procure 100 million doses of vaccines from British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca. 

"The government will pay a 50 percent down payment by the end of this month. The cost for that is about $250 million," Airlangga said.

The country has recorded 349,160 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Thursday, including 12,268 deaths. More than 63,000 Covid-19 patients are still battling the disease across 34 provinces.