"Do jobs at home as far as you can since the number of COVID-19 cases among children is still high."Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Jakarta Provincial Health Office has raised caveat on the escalating number of COVID-19 cases involving children in the Indonesian capital.
Head of Disease Prevention and Control at the Jakarta Provincial Health Office Dwi Okatavia stressed on the criticality of parents tightening guard on their children and preventing them from venturing outdoors.
“Do jobs at home as far as you can since the number of COVID-19 cases among children is still high,” Okatavia noted in a written statement here on Monday.
Quoting data obtained by the health office on Monday, Okatavia remarked that the number of COVID-19 cases among children below 18 years of age had shown an upward trend. Almost 13 percent of the 8,348 positive cases reported on Monday are children under the age of 18.
Children with confirmed COVID-19 comprised 917 kids in the age group of six to 18 years and 327 children up to the age of five.
Children in Bangka Belitung Province have also been affected by COVID-19.
The local COVID-19 task force confirmed that a total of 2,584 children in the age group of one to 14 years in the province were exposed to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections.
"Children constitute some 2,584 of the 20,355 COVID-19 patients," spokesman for the Bangka Belitung Provincial COVID-19 Task Force Andi Budi Prayitno had noted last Wednesday.
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According to Prayitno, 73 of the 2,584 children that contracted COVID-19 were one year of age, 522 were between one and four years of age, and 1,989 were between five and 14 years old.
"The number of children testing positive for coronavirus increased due to the high mobility of their parents and other family members without following health protocols," he pointed out.
Children constituted 12.6 percent of the COVID-19 transmission cases in several parts of Indonesia, Chief of the Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI) Aman Pulungan stated.
“The national data shows that children up to the age of 18 years with confirmed COVID-19 constitute 12.6 percent (of the total transmission cases),” the IDAI chief noted in Jakarta on Tuesday.
One of the eight people exposed to COVID-19 were from the child age bracket, Pulungan noted, adding that children currently also fall in the criteria of people running the risk of succumbing to COVID-19.
The IDAI recommends that 10 percent of the children get vaccinated against COVID-19, he remarked. (INE)
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Translator: Ricky Prayoga/Suharto
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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