ANTARA (Jakarta) – Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health, urged all female regional leaders to administer basic vaccination packages to children by 2022.
“(This is) because the immunizations are mostly for children, who are most dear to a mother,” Sadikin said during a virtual event, which can be accessed from the Health Ministry’s YouTube account from here on Friday.
Given the region’s relatively high immunisation rate, the Health Ministry chose Bangka Belitung as the site for the 2022 World Immunization Day commemoration.
In the first trimester of 2022, the ministry set a target of 22.5 percent coverage of the basic immunisation package. However, at the time, it was only limited to 14 percent.
Bangka Belitung was one of six Indonesian cities that exceeded the ministry’s target for basic immunisation. As a result, Bangka Belitung was expected to inspire other regions to pursue the goal.
He emphasised the importance of the regional government’s proactive participation in achieving the goal.
“The targeted rate supposedly can be achieved if the regional government fully supports basic immunisation,” Sadikin noted.
Minister Sadikin believes that female leaders can be counted on to work hard to meet the immunisation target.
National Children Immunization Month, on the other hand, would begin in May 2022 as a way to catch up on immunizations that were supposed to take place but were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program’s two main events were measles and rubella vaccinations, as well as basic immunizations for toddlers who had not yet received the full basic immunisation pack.
The programme aims to reach up to 800,000 children across Indonesia who are at risk of contracting diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, measles, rubella, and polio, which can be prevented with vaccines.
The first phase of the National Children Immunization Month will take place in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, and Papua in May 2022, with the second phase taking place in Java and Bali in August 2022.
