Jakarta (ANTARA) – At least 160 students of the state Islamic senior high school (MAN) 2 in Ciracas, East Jakarta received COVID-19 jabs under the vaccination program for children aged 12-17 years on Friday.
“In total, (the school has) 803 students. They have been divided into several batches (for the vaccinations). The first batch of 160 students got vaccinated today,” MAN 2 headmaster Wido Prayoga said here on Friday.
A team of vaccinators checked the students’ health before vaccinating them against COVID-19, he informed. Only students who were declared healthy were administered vaccines, he added.
Students also needed prior consent from their parents to get vaccinated, he said. The vaccination of MAN 2 students came a day after Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan kicked off COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 12-17 at state high school (SMAN) 20 in Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta on Thursday.
The Indonesian government has decided to open vaccinations for the 12-17 age group in view of rising infections among children.
According to the COVID-19 task force, coronavirus cases involving children account for 12.6 percent, or more than 250 thousand, of the 2,033,421 cases recorded in the country as of June 23, 2021.
Data from the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection shows that as of June 2, 2021, children from the 6-17 age group constituted 5.6 percent of the total COVID-19 cases, while 2.3 percent of children up to the age of five years were affected by COVID-19.
One out of every eight Indonesians exposed to COVID-19 is under 18 years of age, and children fall in the category that is at risk of succumbing to the virus, government data shows. One of every 83 Indonesians dying of COVID-19 is a child, the data further shows.
Children can contract and succumb to COVID-19 based on the presence of comorbidities, such as obesity, tuberculosis, and hypertension, according to chief of the Indonesian Pediatric Society (IDAI), Aman Pulungan.
Source: Antara News