Mothers Don't Worry, Bio Farma Guarantees Availability Of COVID-19 Vaccines For Children 6-11 Years

Illustration of a bottle of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in the laboratory (Photo ANTARA/Shutterstock/pri)

JAKARTA - Bio Farma seeks to ensure the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 6-11 years.

Spokesman and Corporate Secretary of Bio Farma Bambang Heriyanto said Bio Farma as the owner of the distribution permit for the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine will try to ensure the availability of this vaccine, after the implementation of the use of the vaccine for children aged 6-11 years.

"As in the previous vaccine distribution, we will distribute it after this program is approved and when we get an allocation order from the Ministry of Health," said Bambang in a written statement received in Jakarta, Tuesday, November 2.

From January to October 2021, for the Sinovac vaccine alone, Bio Farma has distributed 186.3 million doses throughout Indonesia. As for the total COVID-19 vaccine that has been distributed since January 2021 - the end of October 2021, there are 226.6 million doses.

Previously, the Indonesian Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) issued a permit to use the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6 to 11 years, referring to the results of the safety and immunity assessment against COVID-19.

Penny said that issuing permits for the use of COVID-19 vaccines for children is an urgent matter considering that currently, schools are starting to implement limited face-to-face learning.

In the report on the results of the clinical trial, it was stated that the side effects arising from vaccination were similar to the group of children aged 11 to 17 years, which was about 11 percent to 17 percent of the total clinical trial subjects.

The license to use the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 11 to 17 years had previously been issued and declared safe for use.