With the issuance of a circular on Wednesday (June 30), the vaccination program for children can be started.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Health Ministry has issued guidelines on the vaccination of 12- to 17-year-olds against COVID-19.

“With the issuance of a circular on Wednesday (June 30), the vaccination program for children can be started,” COVID-19 vaccination spokesperson of the Health Ministry Siti Nadia Tarmizi stated here on Thursday.

Acting director general of disease prevention and control at the Health Ministry Maxi Rein Rondonuwu has signed the circular number HK.02.02/I/ 1727/2021 on the third phase of vaccination of vulnerable people and general public and the COVID-19 vaccination of children in the age group of 12 and 17 years.

Given the circular, the vaccination of children can be conducted at health service facilities, schools, and Islamic boarding schools in coordination with the educational office and regional service office of the Religious Affairs Ministry

“The step is aimed at facilitating data collection and monitoring,” she remarked.

The mechanism of screening and observation during the vaccination of children is the same as vaccine recipients in the age group of above 18 years, she explained.

To receive vaccination, children are also required to bring along a family card or other document containing their citizenship identification numbers to the vaccination site, she remarked.

“The next guidance concerns the registration (of data) in the PCare vaccination applications where they will be classified into teenage group,” she noted.


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The children will be administered a 0.5-ml dose of Sinovac vaccine twice at an interval of at least 28 days between the first and second doses.

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 those running the risk of succumbing to COVID-19.

Pulungan pointed out that children can fall ill and die of COVID-19 based on the comorbidity they experience.

“Anybody can develop comorbidities, such as obesity, tuberculosis, and hypertension, be it children under five or the youth,” he stated.

To this end, the IDAI recommends that 10 percent of the children get vaccinated against COVID-19, he remarked.

“One of the 83 Indonesians, who died of COVID-19, was a child. This should draw attention and become a reason to remain vigilant for asymptomatic people to conduct self-isolation,” he emphasized.

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