Epidemiologist Says Indonesia Needs COVID-19 Vaccination For Children To Achieve Herd Immunity

Ilustrasi (Photo by CDC on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The emergence of COVID-19 cases in school children holding face-to-face learning (PTM) has prompted an urgent need for COVID-19 vaccination for children.

An epidemiologist from Griffity University Australia, Dicky Budiman, said that vaccination in children is needed to achieve communal immunity or herd immunity in the population in Indonesia.

Because, according to him, if children have not been vaccinated, it will be difficult for Indonesia to reach the target of herd immunity.

"Child vaccination is very important because the child population is 32 percent and in Indonesia it's around 20 percent. If vaccinations for children are not counted, herd immunity will be difficult to achieve," said Dicky to VOI, Tuesday, September 28.

Dicky said, a number of countries in the world have started vaccinations for children. He gave an example, Cuba has vaccinated children aged over 2 years using local vaccines.

Then, Cambodia and Chile have also vaccinated children aged over 6 years using Sinovac. Then, Israel vaccinated children aged over 5 years using a third of the Pfizer dose.

"Regarding the potential for vaccination for children under 12 years old, it's actually quite large. Many countries have started vaccinating children," he said.

However, Dicky views that it is better for Indonesia to wait for the results of the phase III clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccination, in this case Sinovac and Sinopharm.

Currently, Sinovac is conducting a phase 3 clinical trial for ages over 3 years using Sinopharm in the United Arab Emirates and a phase 3 clinical trial aged over 3 years using Sinovac in South Africa.

"We can wait for this phase 3 clinical trial. Indeed, if I see the potential, at least early next year, we will start vaccinating children after the data is met, then BPOM has issued a permit (emergency use)," said Dicky.

For information, based on data released by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), there were 19,153 cases of COVID-19 found from 1,296 schools.

Of the total number of students, teachers, and education staff who were confirmed positive, the most cases were in elementary schools, namely 581 schools. Then, followed by 252 PAUD schools, 241 junior high schools, 107 high schools, 70 vocational schools, and 13 special schools.