House of Representatives (DPR RI) speaker Puan Maharani underscored the importance of educating parents for facilitating the smooth implementation of COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 6-11 years.
In her statement received here, Tuesday, Maharani also voiced her support for the implementation of child vaccinations in Blitar City, East Java.
“These children have to partake in face-to-face learning. Hence, vaccination is essential to ensure the (learning) process can run safely for all,” she remarked.
Maharani drew attention to the crucial role of parents in ensuring child vaccinations ran smoothly. Hence, relevant stakeholders are urged to provide education to parents, so they are not hesitant to bring their children to get vaccinated.
“In addition to equitable distribution of vaccines, we are responsible for ensuring that information and knowledge about vaccines are also evenly distributed among all groups,” she noted.
Maharani believes a lack of education should not become the cause for parents to become hesitant or afraid to immunize their children against COVID-19.
The house speaker encouraged the acceleration of child vaccination in regions. She also inaugurated the vaccination drive for children aged 6-11 years at the Sentul 2 State Elementary School, Blitar, held on Tuesday, involving 250 elementary school children.
According to Head of the Blitar City Health Office, Dharma Setiawan, the city is targeting to administer the Sinovac vaccine to 13,528 children aged 6-11 years.
“Hopefully, in March next year, the second dose (vaccinations) would be completed,” he added.
As part of the efforts to build community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021.
Recently, the country began vaccinating children in the age group of 6-11 years after Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin issued Ministerial Decree Number HK.01.07/MENKES/6688/2021 on the implementation of COVID-19 Vaccination for Children aged 6-11 years.
Source: Antara News