Doctors in Indonesia die after taking Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac

In a shocking development, doctors and front health workers at the center of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) management in Indonesia are themselves turning sick, with many of them dead, after being administered the Chinese vaccine -- Sinovac.

In a report carried by the New York Times on Friday, the Indonesian Medical Association attested that at least 20 doctors who have died in the country since the pandemic began were fully vaccinated with Sinovac Biotech, the Chinese-made vaccine.

The vaccination status of as many as 31 others who passed away in the last five months is currently being investigated.

Among the public health professionals who died after being vaccinated with Sinovac was Dr. Suhendro Sastrowiwoho, a frontline medical worker at the town of Kudus in Java.

Although he had received a double dose of the Chinese-made vaccine, he died just days after testing positive for Covid-19 on June 18, the NYT report stated.

Two nurses and a nutritionist, all of who had been fully vaccinated, also died this month in the same town.

On Thursday, the country recorded more than 20,000 cases of COVID-19, the highest number since the pandemic began.

Oxygen is again running out at hospitals in Jakarta, the country's capital and the national percentage of positive COVID tests reached 14.6 per cent this past week, reported the New York Times (NYT).

Indonesia has vaccinated less than 5 per cent of its population, despite having started inoculations in January.

The spread of the Delta variant in Kudus was as sudden as it was speedy. The number of COVID-19 patients affected by the Delta variant increased from 30 people per day in mid-May to about 400 patients two weeks later.

Sinovac, which is produced by a Chinese pharmaceutical company and promoted by the Chinese government, has been criticised for a lack of transparency about its clinical trials.However, Indonesia needs at least another 360 million doses to properly vaccinate the country and Sinovac has been the only manufacturer to provide doses in such large quantities, reported NYT.

For Indonesian health workers struggling with overwhelmed emergency wards and worried about their own immunity, vaccine skepticism is another headache at a time when they thought the country might be finally emerging from the pandemic.

Earlier, NYT reported that countries like Mongolia, Seychelles and Bahrain, who had relied on the easily accessible Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, are now battling a surge in infections.In Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia, about 50 to 68 per cent of the populations have been fully inoculated with Chinese vaccines, outpacing the United States, according to Our World in Data, a data-tracking project. They are also among the top 10 countries with the worst COVID-19 outbreaks as recently as last week.