Our children will fill important positions in 2045, because by 2030, some 60 percent of our society will belong to the productive age groupJakarta (ANTARA) - National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo asserted that all provinces should expedite vaccinations for children aged 6-11 years in line with President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi's) instructions to protect Indonesia's child populace from COVID-19.
"Today, we started to accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations for children as an order from the president. We saw that the spread of the Omicron variant was quite worrisome," Prabowo noted while reviewing child vaccinations conducted at the Mangga Dua Selatan 01 State Elementary School in Central Jakarta, Wednesday.
Prabowo drew attention to several factors apart from the emergence of the Omicron variant, which can quickly transmit and infect vaccinated people, for pursuing vaccination for children on an urgent basis.
However, the impact of Omicron is quite mild on vaccinated people. Hence, vaccination, especially for children, must be conducted to ensure there is no fatality if children are exposed to the Omicron variant.
Other considerations are related to face-to-face learning (PTM) that have begun with 100-percent capacity in several areas.
Prabowo admitted that conducting 100-percent PTM was replete with challenges since PTM is an important need for children. For almost two years since the pandemic struck, children have lost effective study time due to online learning.
"Implementing PTM is a challenge for us. We must ensure the safety of our children through vaccination and ascertain that PTM will not create new clusters of COVID-19," he stated.
Prabowo invited all parties to work together for tackling the Omicron variant. Several steps to curb the spread of the Omicron variant have been taken, such as strengthening the country's borders, tightening health protocols, and accelerating vaccinations.
The general also urged all provinces to speed up vaccinations for children.
According to Prabowo, children's vaccinations was an effort to prepare the country's superior human resources by protecting them from being exposed to the virus.
"Our children will fill important positions in 2045, because by 2030, some 60 percent of our society will belong to the productive age group. We must offer immunity through vaccines for them," he emphasized.
On the occasion, Prabowo lauded the hard work of health workers, health care supervisors, and vaccinators, who have kept the COVID-19 case numbers under control.
However, he also appealed to all parties to remain vigilant and not become careless amid the good achievement of suppressing the number of COVID-19 cases.
"Always implement health protocols and enforce the 3M movement, in particular, including wearing masks and accelerating vaccination to control the spread of COVID-19," he emphasized.
Until now, the government is still conducting COVID-19 vaccinations for its citizens, including for children aged six to 11 years.
Meanwhile, some 17,203,191 people from the age bracket of 12 to 17 years have been inoculated out of the total target of 26,705,490 people that had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
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Translator: Laily R, Resinta S
Editor: Sri Haryati
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