Sinovac Vaccine Solely for Children 6 to 11: Health Ministry

TheIndonesia.id - Indonesia Health Ministry will prioritize the use of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine solely for children in the age bracket of six to 11 years from January 2022.

"We encourage the use of the Sinovac vaccine for children aged 6-11 years. We prioritize those children," Ministry of Health's COVID-19 Vaccination Spokesperson, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated in Jakarta as reported by Antara news agency on Monday, December 13, 2021.

Tarmizi explained that Sinovac vaccine was the sole COVID-19 vaccine to have obtained an emergency-use permit from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) for COVID-19 vaccination for children in the age group of six to 11 years.

Acting Director-General of Disease Prevention and Control of Health Ministry Maxi Rein Rondonuwu affirmed that vaccines apart from Sinovac would be prioritized for people other than the age group of 6 to 11 years.

"Starting from next year, Sinovac vaccine is only for children in the age group of six to 11 years old. Other vaccines available in Indonesia are prioritized for other targets," Rondonuwu stated during a virtual press conference on December 12.

He also noted that COVID-19 vaccination for children aged six to 11 years would start on December 14, with the target number of vaccinations reaching 26 million more children based on the 2020 population census data.

"We will vaccinate all children aged 6 to 11 years. Based on the data, there are 26.8 million in total," Rondonuwu added.

The implementation of child vaccination aligns with the president's instruction to immediately conduct vaccinations for children in the age group of six to 11 years. In addition, the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI) has issued recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6 to 11 years, he remarked.

"We are striving to drive child vaccinations because we want to expedite the process for all Indonesians and attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 transmission," he emphasized.

Currently, based on the Health Ministry's data on Monday, over 146 million people had received their first dose of vaccination and more than 103 million of them had been fully vaccinated with various types of vaccine brands, such as Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Pfizer, and Moderna.