JAKARTA – Indonesia reported its first case of a new, more transmissible variant of the coronavirus known to reduce vaccine protection, but the government said on Tuesday that vaccines used in the country could resist the mutation.
The new variant contains the E484K mutation found in the variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil.
It is nicknamed “Eek” by some scientists for its apparent ability to evade natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection and reduce the protection offered by current vaccines.
Siti Nadia Tarmizi, a senior health ministry official, said on Tuesday that the one-way case had recovered and did not infect close contacts, adding that vaccines currently available in Indonesia could resist the mutation.
However, Herawati Sudoyo, deputy director for basic research at the government-funded Eijkman Institute, which specializes in medical molecular biology and biotechnology, said the ability of vaccines to resist mutation has not yet been determined.
The first case of the variant comes when the country is preparing for a reduction in the supply of COVID-19 vaccines due to the export borders of the AstraZeneca shot imposed by the Indian manufacturer to give priority to domestic supplies.
Indonesia’s health minister said Monday that only 20 million of the 30 million doses he ordered for a March-April delivery were available because of export borders.
He called for the vaccination program to be readjusted and prioritized for the elderly.
With about 1.54 million cases and 41,900 deaths to date, Indonesia has the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia and one of the worst epidemics in Asia.
Its vaccination program aims to inoculate 181 million people and is largely based on a vaccine developed by Sinovac in China due to delays in the delivery of the AstraZeneca vaccine. (Reporting by Stanley Widianto; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Martin Petty)
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