Most of the infected students were enrolled at primary and junior high schools, Mimika district's COVID-19 task force spokesperson, Raynold Ubra, told ANTARA in Timika, the capital of Mimika, on Friday.
The students may have gotten infected via family clusters, he informed, adding that Mimika district has recorded 4,043 infections and 3,597 recoveries as of January 21, 2021.
The recovery rate has been relatively high as there are many asymptomatic cases in the district, he said.
As of Thursday (January 21, 2021), 408 COVID-19 patients have been conducting self isolation in the district. Meanwhile, the district's death toll has been recorded at 38.
Speaking about the government's COVID-19 vaccination program, Ubra, who is also head of the Mimika Health Office, said the first phase of the program will commence as soon as it is officially announced on Friday morning.
The health office has prepared about 70 vaccinators for inoculating 1,730 recipients. Among the priority recipients in the first phase of the vaccination program are medical workers, he said.
Ahead of Indonesia's national vaccination program, the Indonesian Ulema Council had issued a fatwa, or decision, on the halal status of China's Sinovac vaccine.
Indonesia's Drug and Food Control Agency (BPOM) also issued an emergency-use authorization (EUA) for the vaccine, allowing the government to launch the vaccination program from January 13, 2021.
President Joko Widodo, Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, and several public figures, including television personality Raffi Ahmad, received the country's first COVID-19 jabs on January 13.
The Health Ministry had revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to vaccinate about 181.5 million people under the national COVID-19 vaccination program.
"We need 15 months to accomplish it. The time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated.
During the period, the government is targeting to inoculate about 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she informed.
Tarmizi said the first phase of the government's immunization program will be further divided into two stages: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022. (INE)
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
