At least 201.47 million Indonesian citizens have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Thursday, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.
Data received by ANTARA from the task force here on Thursday showed that the number of citizens who received the first vaccine dose rose by 18,684 on Thursday, taking the total number of recipients to 201,472,856.
Then, the number of fully vaccinated people, or those who have received two vaccine shots under the nationwide vaccination program, swelled by 16,030 to reach 168,980,896 on Thursday.
The task force’s data also showed that the number of Indonesians who have received the third or booster vaccine dose rose by 51,482 to touch 50,450,341 as of Thursday.
As part of efforts to boost community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, targeting as many as 208,265,720 citizens across the country.
Earlier, the Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI) said that it is still studying indicators regarding the provision of COVID-19 vaccines to children aged below six years.
Member of IDAI’s tropical infections coordination unit, Nina Dwi Putri, at a webinar on Tuesday, affirmed that the study would continue to be carried out even though several countries have begun to provide various types of COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of six along with studies on the provision of booster doses for adolescents.
The study is looking into the vaccine’s effectiveness, benefits, and side effects that children may experience.
According to Putri, a more in-depth study will have to be carried out because, based on IDAI data, the full dose vaccination coverage among children aged six years and above has not yet reached the target.
She informed that once the vaccination target, especially for the full dose, for children aged six years and above, is reached, IDAI will immediately decide on the provision of booster doses for children.
Source: Antara News