High Children's COVID-19 Transmission, F-PDIP DPRD Members Ask Anies 12-17 Years Old To Refuse Vaccination

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JAKARTA - Member of the PDIP faction of the DKI DPRD Gilbert Simanjuntak asked DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan to impose sanctions on children aged 12-17 who refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

Because, at this time, the rate of transmission of COVID-19 at the age of children is higher than in the previous period, along with the emergence of a new variant of COVID-19 that mutates.

"Every effort must be made to suppress this increase in cases. Without sanctions that are strictly enforced, the efforts made are useless, because the appeal alone is not enough. It is proven by the spread of COVID-19 cases to the second wave," Gilbert told reporters, Tuesday, July 6.

Gilbert considers the high transmission of COVID-19 in children is quite dangerous. Even though the prevalence of symptoms in children's corona cases is low, they can still transmit the virus to their parents.

The danger, according to Gilbert, is if children transmit COVID-19 to adults who have comorbidities or comorbidities.

"This group has high mobility, is difficult to monitor and when infected they are generally OTG. Unfortunately, there is no confirmation for the group that refuses to vaccinate, even though the failure to vaccinate this group makes it difficult to prevent transmission," said Gilbert.

"They have the potential to be a source of mobile transmission because there are no symptoms or complaints but they move here and there. It is also very difficult for this group to be disciplined to wear masks and maintain a distance, especially in densely populated settlements," he added.

Considering the age of 12-17 years is school age, Gilbert suggested that sanctions for children who refuse vaccines are a prohibition for them to take part in learning at school.

Data collection on this child population, said Gilbert, can be obtained from various sources such as NIK, KJP, schools, or RT-RW.

"The expected sanctions will be in the form of banning children from taking lessons or extra-curricular activities if they are not vaccinated, not being allowed to participate in PTM, termination of subsidies and a ban on taking exams," said Gilbert.

For information, DKI Jakarta recorded an additional 10,903 cases of COVID-19 as of July 5, 2021. Of the additional new cases, 15 percent of cases were transmitted to children under the age of 18.

In detail, 1,273 cases were children aged 6-18 years and 400 cases were children aged 0-5 years. Meanwhile, 8,275 cases were aged 19-59 years and 955 cases were aged 60 years and over.