Indonesia greenlights vaccines for 12 and older

Widodo said in a video statement that he was grateful that the agency has issued an emergency use of authorisation for the Sinovac vaccine so that “vaccination for children that age can start immediately.” He has asked authorities to boost the country's vaccination rollout to two million shots a day by August from the current level of about 1 million a day, as a second wave of infections engulfs Southeast Asia country.

Monday's announcement came a day after health authorities announced the country's largest one-day jump in new coronavirus infections, the second day in a row, as the Health Ministry reported 21,342 new cases and 409 deaths over the past 24 hours.

The latest tally on Monday showed the country's total confirmed cases since the pandemic began at more than 2.1 million, the most in Southeast Asia, including confirmed fatalities to more than 57,100.

Authorities have so far only fully vaccinated 13.1 million of Indonesia's 270 million people and partially vaccinated another 14.2 million.