Jakarta Starts Vaccination Of Children 6-11 Years Tomorrow

ILLUSTRATION BETWEEN

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Provincial Government will start the COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6 to 11 years on Tuesday, December 14. This was done after receiving the green light from the central government.

"Tomorrow morning we will launch the vaccination of children," said the Head of Disease Prevention and Control of the DKI Health Service, Dwi Oktavia, when confirmed, Monday, December 13.

Currently, the DKI Health Office is finalizing preparations for the implementation of child vaccination. In the first stage, vaccination of children 6-11 years old is held in elementary schools (SD).

"Initially, it will be implemented in elementary schools or the equivalent, according to a schedule determined by the school and health centers. Apart from schools, it can also be implemented in health facilities or vaccine posts," said Dwi.

For information, the Acting Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Indonesian Ministry of Health Maxi Rein Rondonuwu said that the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination for 26.8 million target groups of children aged 6 to 11 years in the country began Tuesday, December 14.

"We hope that on Tuesday, December 14, there will be a 'kick off' in several areas that we will determine, and then it will be done gradually until next year," said Maxi.

Maxi said the vaccination was carried out in stages in provinces and districts/cities with the criteria for vaccination coverage of dose 1 above 70 percent and vaccination coverage for the elderly above 60 percent.

There are 106 regencies/cities from 11 provinces that currently have fulfilled this achievement, namely Banten, DI Yogyakarta, DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan, Riau Islands, West Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, and Bali.

"Until now, as many as 8.8 million people from 106 regencies/cities from 11 provinces have met these criteria," said Maxi.

The Ministry of Health has allocated a total of 6.4 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine that already has Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for use in children aged 6-11 years.

The amount of vaccine allocation is believed by Maxi to be sufficient for injection needs until the end of December 2021.

"There are 6.4 million doses for December and then January 2022 there will be an additional Sinovac vaccine from the Director-General of Pharmacy and it has arrived, so this (vaccination for children) will not be broken," he said.