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BPOM approves Sinovac vaccine for minors aged 6 to 11
“Children aged 6-17 years can now get vaccinated. We are still trying to get more complete data for children under 6, because children at this age require more caution,” BPOM head Penny Lukito said in a press briefing on Monday.
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he Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has approved emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Coronavac COVID-19 vaccine, coproduced by China’s Sinovac Biotech and state-owned pharmaceuticals giant Biofarma, for children between 6 and 11 years old.
BPOM head Penny Lukito confirmed the news in a virtual press briefing on Monday. “Children aged 6-17 years can now get vaccinated. We are still trying to get more complete data for children under 6, because children at this age require more caution,” she told reporters.
The decision was based on the agency’s clinical trial results involving 550 children between 6 and 11, which showed that the vaccine provided immunogenicity for 96 percent of the recipient pool and offered similar efficacy scores to previous trials for children over 12 years old.
Coronavac was the first registered vaccine that could be used for minors aged 6 and older, Penny said, while hoping that other vaccines would soon get the green light as well, especially since at-school learning had commenced and community activity restrictions are gradually being lifted.
The BPOM had previously announced plans to authorize two other vaccines for minors, namely those from Sinopharm and United States-based Pfizer, also pending trial results.
Separately, Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) chairperson Piprim Basarah Yanuarso welcomed the BPOM’s approval of the Sinovac vaccine, considering the high COVID-19 death rate among Indonesian children.
He said that child vaccinations were capable of preventing transmission, as most children are asymptomatic and may unknowingly infect other vulnerable groups like the elderly.
“The IDAI has about 4,500 members and we are ready to carry out vaccinations for children aged 6 to 11,” Piprim said.
Echoing the IDAI, International Pediatric Association (IPA) executive director Aman Pulungan also welcomed the BPOM’s decision, underlining the fact that children must be protected because face-to-face instruction needed to be carried out immediately to prevent loss of learning. He said vaccinations would likely also convince parents to allow their children to return to school in person.
“If we can do this soon, the children's developmental index, which has been decreasing for the past two years, can definitely improve," Aman said on Monday.
As part of its recommendations to the World Health Organization, Aman said the IPA encouraged children and their families be inoculated before joining face-to-face learning, as is the case with their teachers and other school staff members.
Meanwhile, the government has said that early-stage child vaccinations would be carried out in areas where the rate of vaccination among the elderly is already high.
“We remain focused on vaccine rollouts [related to] the elderly,” Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Muhadjir Effendy said in a virtual press briefing on Monday.
The government has administered some 194 million jabs nationwide, with 119 million first doses – equal to coverage for 57 percent of the targeted population – and 73.8 million second doses (35 percent).
The government is committed to rolling out up to 300 million vaccinations, with 168 million people (80.9 percent of the target) to get the first dose, and 123 million people (59 percent) to be fully vaccinated by the end of the year.
