Elementary School Children In Makassar To Start Being Injected With COVID-19 Vaccine Tomorrow

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MAKASSAR - The Makassar City Government, South Sulawesi, has started giving injections of the COVID-19 vaccine to elementary school (SD) students to make the Merdeka Vaccination program a success.

Head of Makassar Education Office, Muhyiddin Mustakim, said that elementary school students were given vaccinations after junior high school (SMP) and high school (SMA) students were successfully vaccinated.

"God willing, tomorrow, January 20, we will start for our children in elementary school. For children at the junior high and high school levels it has been completed," he said as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, January 19.

Muhyiddin stated that the administration of vaccine injections to elementary school students after face-to-face learning (PTM) was held 100 percent, even though they had to divide them into two classes in order to implement health protocols.

According to him, epidemiologists call the transmission of a new variant of the virus, Omicron, fast, so that real steps are needed to protect children, such as giving vaccine injections.

"The Omicron variant, according to experts, spreads more quickly. Children are prone to infection and we need quick action to protect our children, one of which is by creating strong immunity through vaccination," he said. According to him, 60 percent of Indonesians are of productive age. in 2030 so it must be prepared now by protecting them from the spread of COVID-19.

"To be able to prepare superior human resources (HR), we must protect children from the risks of various new variants of COVID-19," he said.

He asked the public, parents, and guardians of students to support the Merdeka Vaccination program, because vaccination is useful for building children's immunity as an effort to prevent the virus.

In the vaccination, his party targets that all SD students recorded, namely 132,000 people, can receive vaccine injections.