Vaccines have been guaranteed to be safe and capable of protecting us from the pandemic, thus do not hesitate to get vaccinated and complete routine child immunizations immediately.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - COVID-19 vaccinations for 26.8 million Indonesian children in the 6–11 age group will begin on Tuesday, an official from the Health Ministry has informed.

"We expect the vaccination to start on Tuesday in a number of determined areas. The program will be implemented in stages until next year,” acting director general of disease prevention and control at the ministry, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said in a statement here on Monday.

The program will be carried out in provinces and districts/cities where the first dose coverage has crossed 70 percent and vaccination coverage among the elderly has reached above 60 percent, he informed.

Currently, there are 106 districts/cities in 11 provinces that meet the criteria, including Banten, Yogyakarta, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan, Riau Islands, West Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, and Bali, he said.

“Thus, so far, there are 8.8 million children from 106 districts/cities who are going to be vaccinated," the acting director general added.

The ministry has allocated 6.4 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, which has received emergency-use authorization (EUA), for children in the 6–11 age group, Rondonuwu said.

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He further said he believed that the vaccine allocation would be sufficient to run the program until the end of December 2021.

"For January 2022, there will be additional vaccine stocks (that will be received) from the director general of pharmacy and medical equipment, thus we can maintain the program to keep running," he explained.

Separately, spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccinations at the ministry, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, informed that children will be administered 0.5 milliliters (ml) of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The vaccination will be given twice, with an interval of at least 28 days in between, she said. Before administering the vaccine, vaccination officers will conduct a health screening, she added.

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Vaccinations can be carried out at community health centers (Puskesmas), hospitals, or other healthcare facilities, both government and private, including vaccination posts and centers, the spokesperson said.

"Vaccines have been guaranteed to be safe and capable of protecting us from the pandemic, thus do not hesitate to get vaccinated and complete routine child immunizations immediately," she emphasized.

Vaccinations for children aged 6–11 are one of the attempts to curb the transmission of COVID-19, Tarmizi said.

Currently, the socialization of the technical guide for child vaccinations has almost been completed by the provincial and district/city health offices, she added.

The technical implementation of the program is based on the Home Affairs Minister’s Instruction (Inmendagri) Number 66/2021 regarding the Prevention and Control of COVID-19 at 2021 Christmas and 2022 New Year.


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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Uyu Liman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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