Ministry Of Health: 540 Thousand Children Aged 6-11 Years Have Taken COVID-19 Vaccination

ILLUSTRATION OF STUDENT VACCINATION/ANTARA

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) said as many as 540,000 children aged 6 to 11 years had participated in the COVID-19 vaccination from the first administration on December 14 to December 20.

"Until today, approximately 540,000 children aged 6 to 11 years have received the COVID-19 vaccination," said the Spokesperson for the COVID-19 Vaccination of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Siti Nadia Tarmizi in a Healthy Broadcast entitled "Know and Protect Yourself Variants Omicron" as reported by Antara, Monday, December 20.

Nadia said the total vaccinations to be given to children aged 6 to 11 years were 26.5 million doses. Vaccination will be carried out in stages until the end of December.

With a vaccination target of 8.9 million doses in 115 districts and cities spread throughout Indonesia.

"Actually, there are 19 provinces where 115 regencies/cities have met the requirements, then we carry out vaccinations for children aged 6 to 11 years as the first stage," she said.

According to her, there are requirements to be able to give vaccines to children in that age range. Each district or city must have achieved the first dose of vaccination at least 70 percent for all targets and 60 percent for the elderly population (elderly) belonging to vulnerable groups.

Therefore, in dealing with the Omicron variant, she appealed to the public to immediately complete the vaccination dose given, including giving vaccines to children.

Nadia emphasized that vaccines can protect children from various variants of COVID-19 that continue to mutate. Moreover, in carrying out an activity in public places.

In the occurrence of Post-Immunization Adverse Events (AEFI), parents are expected not to panic, because the side effects caused at most 13 percent feel pain at the injection site and 5 percent feel fever.

"There is no need to panic if there is AEFI. Because the vaccine that we currently use is the Sinovac vaccine. Remember, two times are given with an interval of 28 days. So there are more benefits and this will provide protection for children from Omicron," she said.

Previously, the government kicked off the COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6 to 11 years on December 14, 2021. The activity was initially carried out in three provinces, namely DKI Jakarta, Banten and West Java as a government measure to protect the nation's children from COVID-19, especially the new Omicron variant which has entered Indonesia.