JAKARTA - Indonesia has received the 18th batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in seven large containers on Wednesday, according to the country's health ministry.

The newest arrival of the vaccines in bulk will be directly transported to the state-owned pharmaceutical company PT Bio Farma in West Java province's capital of Bandung for further processing.

Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin told a virtual press conference that it takes about a month for Bio Farma to process them into ready-to-use vaccines.

More COVID-19 vaccines were expected to arrive in Indonesia in the second half of this year, Sadikin added.

Indonesia targets to vaccinate 181.5 million people by March next year to achieve herd immunity.