Ministry Of Health Publishes Mechanism Of Vaccination For COVID-19 Children 12-17 Years

JAKARTA - Plt. The Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu said that his party had issued a circular regarding the mechanism of COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 12-17 years.

This is stated in SE HK.02.02/1/1727/2021 concerning Phase 3 Vaccination for Vulnerable Communities and Other General Publics and Implementation of COVID-19 Vaccination for Children aged 12-17 Years.

In the SE, Maxi explained that children need to get vaccinated because currently the spread of COVID-19 in children is increasingly widespread.

Currently, more than 2 million people have been confirmed to have COVID-19. Nearly 260,000 confirmed cases were children aged 0-18 years, of which more than 108,000 cases were in the 12-17 year age range.

Then, more than 600 children aged 0-18 years died, a total of 197 children of whom were aged 12-17 years with a case fatality rate in that age group of 0.18 percent.

"In accordance with the intake from the National Immunization Expert Advisory Committee or the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) and the approval for the use of the COVID-19 Vaccine produced by PT Bio Farma (Sinovac) for the age group over 12 years, vaccination can be given to children aged 12-24 years. 17 years old," said Maxi, quoted by SE on Thursday, July 1.

Maxi explained that the vaccination of children 12-17 years old can be carried out in health care facilities or at schools/madrasah/Islamic boarding schools, in coordination with the Education Office and the local Ministry of Religion's regional offices/offices to facilitate data collection and monitoring of implementation.

Then, the mechanism of screening, implementation and observation in children is the same as vaccination at the age of 18 years.

Then, vaccination participants must bring a family card or other document that includes the child's NIK. Recording in the PCare application of vaccinations included in the group of adolescents.

Vaccination in children using Sinovac vaccine with a dose of 0.5 ml twice with a distance or interval of at least 28 days. The Ministry of Health targets that 32.6 million children 12-17 years old are vaccinated.