Indonesia's mass vaccination programme is set to start next week, a senior minister has said, pending authorisation from the country's food and drug agency (BPOM), as about 700,000 doses of vaccines have already been widely distributed.

Currently battling one of Asia's most stubborn coronavirus epidemics, Indonesia has secured more than 329 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, most notably from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, and AstraZeneca.

According to Reuters, those to be used in the first phase are from China's Sinovac, which has named its vaccine CoronaVac.

Airlangga Hartarto, the country's chief economic minister, said the mass vaccination programme is scheduled to start next week, pending data from BPOM, which he said draws findings from the clinical trials in Brazil and Turkey.