Ministry Of Health: Children Aged 6-11 Years Will Get COVID-19 Vaccine In Schools

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JAKARTA - Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said the government plans to cooperate with schools to vaccinate children aged 6 to 11 years.

"It is possible for children aged 6-11 years, these are school children, we will cooperate with each school. We know that there is a 'child immunization month' in schools every year, so we will use this mechanism later," Nadia said in the talk show "Child Vaccines, Love Families" monitored in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Monday, November 8.

Based on discussions with experts such as the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI), children are more daring to get vaccinated after seeing their friends don't cry when they are injected. Therefore, the injection of the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be more efficient if it is carried out in schools.

“For children with disabilities, we will cooperate with SLB (Special Schools) and the community. For children who are not in school, for example, street children, we will cooperate with the Social Service,” she added.

She said COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6-11 years with Sinovac would use a single data vaccination system. Therefore, the government will need the child's Population Identification Number (NIK) so parents are asked to prepare from now on.

“Parents, while the vaccination process has not yet started, it is currently being checked whether the NIK of each child is known. Usually, the NIK is also on the family card and the school has actually recorded this number," she explained.

If the parents do not have their child's NIK, the parents can report it to the local sub-district or village.

According to her, the government targets to vaccinate around 26 million children aged 6-11 years. For that, the government needs at least 50 million doses of vaccine because children will also be vaccinated twice.

The government is still compiling technical details for the vaccination of children aged 6-11 years. Several things have become the government's attention, such as the side effects of vaccination for children who usually don't really recognize the pain in their bodies.

The government is also still exploring the right way of screening so that children with congenital diseases such as heart disease and leukemia are not necessarily vaccinated without the approval of the doctor who usually treats them.

“Children with these conditions must also receive protection first because they are at risk of being exposed to more severe COVID-19 than healthy children. So when they can be vaccinated, we must also prepare,” she said.