President Asks To Explore COVID-19 Vaccination For Children Under 6 Years Old

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo asked the relevant ministries to explore the COVID-19 vaccination for children under the age of six in order to maintain and increase the immunity levels of the Indonesian people.

"One of the initiatives is that the President will ask for vaccinations for children under six years old, we will start exploring," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi in a press statement after a Limited Cabinet Meeting related to the Evaluation of the Implementation of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM) led by President Jokowi in The Jakarta Presidential Palace was reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, August 23.

"There is already an approved vaccine in the world, pediatric vaccination is called and we are exploring it," he continued.

This is one of the initiatives that the government may take in order to maintain the immunity level of 98.5 percent of the population and the level of 2,000 units per milliliter, as the results of the latest sero survey in July 2022.

The second initiative that is the government's option is the provision of COVID-19 vaccination for the elderly, comorbid groups, and those whose immunity levels have decreased or are more than six months old.

"Because we already know by name by address, later we will provide an alternative to existing vaccines, in order to increase the level of immunity in order to maintain Indonesia's immunity level to deal with it, get ready at the beginning of next year if for example there is a new variant," said the Minister of Health.

Budi said the potential for both new variants and mutations of the COVID-19 virus might occur due to the condition of confirmed cases in several countries such as Japan, Europe, and the United States, which are above 100 thousand cases per day.

In fact, specifically for Japan, continued the Minister of Health, the confirmed cases are above 200 thousand per day.

According to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto in Indonesia, currently, the 7-day moving average is in the range of 4,683 or relatively lower than the majority of other countries.

The Minister of Health reminded that Indonesia's success in suppressing the rate of daily confirmation cases could not be separated from the already high level of community immunity due to two things.

The first is the intensive vaccination rate from November 2021 to January 2022, and the second is due to the infection of the Omicron variant wave in February-March 2022.

"The combination of vaccinations in November, December, January, and infections in February and March resulted in very high levels of Indonesian antibodies in June, July, and August. You could say that during the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariances. We can say that when we enter, we are not disturbed at all," said the Minister of Health.

However, Indonesia is now faced with a challenge that, according to the Minister of Health, may appear in six months, and for that, the most important step is to maintain the current level of immunity.