The food and drug agency of Indonesia (BPOM) granted emergency use approval to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech on 11 January 2021, Reuters news agency reported on Monday.

This makes Indonesia the first country outside China to give the regulatory greenlight to this vaccine, named CoronaVac.

Penny K. Lukito, who heads BPOM, said that this authorisation came after interim data from a late-stage human trial in Indonesia showed the vaccine was 65.3% effective.

Lukito was quoted as saying: "These results meet the requirements of the World Health Organisation of a minimum of efficacy of 50%," noting trial results in Brazil and Turkey.

Reportedly, a Brazil-based trial showed last week that Sinovac's vaccine candidate is 78% effective, while Turkish researchers said in December 2020 the vaccine showed 91.25% efficacy based on interim analysis.

Currently, Indonesia has received three million doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac and is slated to receive some 122.5 million more that will come in bulks.

To date, Indonesia has reported 836,718 COVID-19 infections and 24,343 deaths.