Jakarta to Vaccinate Children Aged 6-11 at School

TheIndonesia.co - Jakarta will include schools as COVID-19 vaccination sites for children in the 6–11 age group, an official has informed.

"Schools are one of the potential places to provide vaccination services to children aged 6–11 years," head of disease prevention and control at the Jakarta Health Office, Dwi Oktavia, said at a children's vaccination seminar here on Tuesday, 30 November 2021.

Schools in Jakarta already have a good, cooperative relationship with the public health center as organizers of COVID-19 vaccinations, she said as noted by Antara news agency.

This coordination was optimally fostered through the launch of the students' immunization month, she said.

The decision to use schools as COVID-19 vaccination sites was based on ease of access, availability of open space facilities, and teacher readiness, among others, Oktavia said.

"We urge parents to not hesitate to vaccinate their children at school because they (will be) served well like in health facilities," she added.

She said her administration is still awaiting technical guidance from the Health Ministry regarding COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 6–11.

"We certainly hope that COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 6–11 years old can be conducted immediately, but, of course, the central government is still preparing everything, (such as) the readiness of its personnel, (but) the most important thing is the availability of the vaccine," she elaborated.

The Jakarta Health Office is targeting around 900 thousand children aged 6 to 11 years in the capital city.

It said it has conducted a comparison of target data with the Population and Civil Registry Office to determine the number of children who need to be vaccinated.