"The vaccination drive for children in the age group of 12-17 years is focused on local health facilities or their respective schools," the Health Ministry's COVID-19 vaccinations spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said during an online dialogue hosted by the National COVID-19 Handling and Economic Recovery Committee (KPC-PEN) here on Thursday.
Vaccination drives at local healthcare facilities (Fasyankes) are focused on vaccinating teenagers aged 12-17 who are not enrolled in any educational institutions, while teenagers enrolled in schools are being directed to get vaccinated at schools hosting vaccination drives, Tarmizi informed.
Vaccines for teenagers have been distributed nationwide, with 50 percent of vaccines allocated for Java-Bali provinces and the rest proportionally to other provinces, she added.
"We currently have a policy of distributing 50 percent of vaccines to Java-Bali provinces due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases there, and the rest of the vaccines will be distributed proportionally to other provinces. Those portioning already includes vaccines for teenagers," Tarmizi said.
The current vaccine stock in Indonesia is just 130 million doses, a mere 30 percent of the 426 million doses necessary to satisfy the national vaccination target, she pointed out.
The target of the vaccination program has also been increased from 181.5 million to 208 million, she added.
The 16.9 million recipients of the second vaccine dose account for 7 percent of the target, while the 43.3 million recipients of the first vaccine dose represent 15 percent of the target, as per records collated yesterday afternoon (July 21, 2021).
"We need to meet the target in these seven months, at least to achieve 90 percent of our initial target of 181.5 million," Tarmizi remarked.
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Translator: Andi F, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Suharto
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