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To vaccinate children or not? Doubts linger amid COVID-19 surge ahead of school reopening
Whether to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 is the top-of-mind question among many parents as the country records a surge in daily cases amid the countdown to the planned school reopening on July 13.
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A teacher and his students take part in a simuation of socially distanced in-class learning on Dec. 15, 2020 at SDN Karang Raharja 02 elementary school in Cikarang, Bekasi regency, West Java. (Antara/Fakhri Hermansyah)
The plan to reopen schools in July poses a new threat to children’s health amid the current COVID-19 surge across the country.
While the government aims to vaccinate all teachers by the end of June, the largely sluggish rollout has only exacerbated the problem surrounding the school reopening plan.
Critics have been quick to point out the dangers of reopening schools too soon, particularly as more transmissible COVID-19 variants have been detected in some parts of the country, including Jakarta and Kudus, Central Java.
While some parents have become more open to the idea of sending their children back to school, with the caveat that all school employees have been vaccinated and schools have implemented stringent health and safety measures, others are still wondering if and when their children should be vaccinated.
Read also: Delta variant behind Kudus COVID-19 spike, officials say
School-age children are among the groups with the lowest COVID-19 fatality rates in the world, but Indonesia is reportedly among those countries that have recorded the highest COVID-19 deaths in children.
In September 2020, Indonesia’s death rate among pediatric cases of COVID-19 surpassed the United States.
