"We are ready to become involved in the vaccination program for children in the age group of 12 and 17 years," Head of the military command headquarters' health division, Col Dr I Made Mardika, stated.
To this end, the military service has registered its members' children from the age group, Mardika informed ANTARA in Denpasar, the capital of Bali Province, on Thursday.
Mardika noted that some 10 thousand children of military service members in Bali and some five thousand in West Nusa Tenggara Province were eligible vaccination.
The Udayana Regional Military Command's health service still awaits technical guidance on the vaccination program for children in the targeted age groups from the Indonesian Health Ministry, he remarked.
Once the technical guidance is received, the registered children will be administered their first jabs of the Sinovac or Pfizer vaccines, he stated.
The Health Ministry has issued guidelines on the government's COVID-19 vaccination program for children in the age group of 12 and 17 years.
"With the issuance of a circular on Wednesday (June 30), the vaccination program for children can be started," the ministry's COVID-19 vaccination spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Jakarta authorities on Thursday commenced a vaccination program for children in parallel with vaccination for the public, in general, which has been underway since June 2021.
In the initial stage, the authorities were expected to administer vaccine jabs to 100 children through coordination with the city's health office, communication and information office, and the education office.
"We have screened 100 children, and we have given information concerning their parents' approval to receive the COVID-19 vaccine shots today," Widyastuti, chief of the Jakarta Health Office, remarked.
The first vaccination was conducted at state-run senior high school SMAN 20 in Central Jakarta by applying a cluster system segregated into four groups.
The COVID-19 pandemic initially hit the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 and subsequently spread globally, including to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
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The Indonesian government announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.
Since then, the central and regional governments have striven incessantly to flatten the nation's coronavirus curve by applying healthcare protocols and public activity restrictions.
As part of the efforts to win the fight against COVID-19, the Indonesian government has also been conducting a nationwide vaccination program to contain infections since January 13, 2021.
As of June 20, 2021, Indonesia had received 104,728,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, comprising 94.5 million Sinovac vaccines, 8.228 million AstraZeneca vaccines, and two million Sinopharm vaccines.
Related news: Jakarta commences vaccination for children in 12-17 year age group
Related news: Health Ministry issues guidelines on vaccination of children
EDITED BY INE
Translator: Ayu KP, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
