The Central Government Allows Regions To Start Vaccinating Children Aged 6-11 Years From December 24 If They Meet These Requirements

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JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian gave the green light to provinces and districts/cities to start vaccinating COVID-19 for children aged 6 to 11 years starting on December 24.

This is stated in the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs Number 66 of 2021 concerning Prevention and Control of COVID-19 at Christmas in 2021 and New Year in 2022.

"During the period of Christmas 2021 and New Year's 2022 on December 24 to January 2, starting vaccination for children aged 6 to 11 years," Tito wrote in the Ministry of Home Affairs quoted on Friday, December 10.

However, there are conditions that need to be met if the region wants to start vaccinating children aged 6-11 years. The requirement is that vaccination in an area has reached the target of at least 70 percent of the first dose of the total target and a minimum target of 60 percent of the first dose of the elderly.

Tito asked each regional head to accelerate the achievement of vaccination targets in their respective regions.

"The first dose reached the target of 70 percent and the second dose reached the target of 48.57 percent of the total target, especially vaccination for the elderly until the end of December 2021," he said.

For information, the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Sinovac vaccine in children aged 6-11 years.

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.