"Thus far, polio cases in children under the age of 15 years have not been found in Jakarta," Head of Jakarta Health Office's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Immunization Ngabila Salama noted here Tuesday.
"The injectable and drip polio vaccination coverage in 2022 is proceeding well," she remarked.
Currently, the Jakarta Health Office is expanding the coverage of polio vaccination, especially for those, who have not completed it.
Dissemination of information on the importance of immunization has also been conducted through the Jakarta Health Office's social media channel to reach all infants in the capital city.
"We continue to comb and improve vaccination coverage for infants that have not completed their vaccination and ensure that every child receives drip polio vaccine four times and injectable polio vaccine once," she remarked.
The Jakarta Health Office extends the vaccination service within the National Child Immunization Month (BIAN) to December 31, 2022.
The immunization service is given free of charge and can be accessed through public health centers (puskesmas) across Jakarta.
Later, immunization certification within BIAN will automatically reflect on the PeduliLindungi application that the infants' parents have installed.
The BIAN immunization program also covers rubella immunization in addition to polio drops, injectable polio, pentavalent for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT), hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type B immunizations, Salama added.
Despite this, the Jakarta Health Office has not yet provided detailed information on the number of infants that have received polio vaccination.
Based on the Jakarta Health Office's data, 648,037, or equivalent to 90 percent of children in the age bracket of nine to 59 months in Jakarta, had received the rubella vaccine as per August 31, 2022.
This achievement places Jakarta Province in the top spot in terms of rubella immunization coverage for the BIAN activity across Indonesia.
The government currently intensifies polio vaccination after 415 districts or cities in 30 provinces in Indonesia entered the polio high-risk criteria due to low immunization.
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Translator: Dewa Ketut S W, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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