Sinovac Is Good News For Parents Of Children Aged 6-12 Years In The Midst Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

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JAKARTA - The Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) brings good news for parents. The reason is that they officially allow the emergency use of authorization (UAE) for the Sinovac type of COVID-19 vaccine to be injected in children aged 6-11 years.

Head of BPOM Penny K. Lukito announced that the Sinovac vaccine can now be given to children less than 12 years old. He conveyed this encouraging news through an online press conference on Monday, November 1.

"A license to use the COVID-19 vaccine from Sinovac vaccine has been issued for children 6-11 years old. This follows the previous use of 12-17 years old," said Penny in the announcement.

With the publication of this UAE, the Sinovac type of COVID-19 vaccine can be used for vaccines from children to adolescents and is an exciting thing.

The reason is that the injection of the vaccine prevents them from being exposed to the virus in the midst of face-to-face learning activities (PTM) which are starting to take place in a number of areas in the country.

"This is encouraging news because we firmly believe that child vaccination is an urgent matter now. Moreover, face-to-face learning and teaching have begun," he said.

Later, apart from Sinovac, there will be several types of vaccines that can be given to children under the age of 12, such as Sinopharm and Pfizer. However, BPOM is still waiting for a complete review of the two types of vaccines before issuing an emergency use permit.

"We are waiting in the near future, of course, there will be more vaccines that will soon be registered with BPOM to be used by children aged 6-11 years," said Penny.

It is hoped that with so many types of COVID-19 vaccines that can be injected into children, they will quickly get protection from exposure to the virus. In addition, this is believed to make parents confident to let their children go back to school.

After the permit has been granted by BPOM, it is now the turn of the Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) to arrange the detailed requirements for administering the Sinovac vaccine to children aged 6-11 years.

The General Chairperson of the IDAI Piprim Central Executive Board, Basarah Yanuarso, said that his party would immediately draw up these requirements in as much detail as possible. This detailed requirement is deemed necessary as a form of anticipation even though only a few cases show contra indications for giving certain types of vaccines to children.

"Later we will issue a detailed recommendation for vaccination for children aged 6-11 years," said Piprim at the same press conference.

Even so, Piprim stated that there are a number of conditions that prevent children from getting the COVID-19 vaccine. "In certain conditions, such as immunocompromise, yes, or the child is seriously ill, suffering from malignancy, shortness of breath, heart failure and so on, of course it cannot be done," he said.

"But later in detail IDAI will issue recommendations as soon as possible," added Piprim.

When will this injection be given to children?

A few weeks ago, Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin said the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine to children under the age of 12 was likely to be carried out in early 2022 after clinical trials were completed.

While most recently, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said the COVID-19 vaccine would begin to be given to children aged 6-11 years after the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) gave permission.

This provision will be made to children who live in areas where the elderly vaccination rate is already high.

"Vaccination of children will be carried out after obtaining a permit and applied at an early stage in areas that have high vaccination rates for the elderly," said Muhadjir.