VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Government mulls Sinovac, Pfizer vaccines for children - 

The Indonesian Health Ministry is considering the use of Sinovac and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for children aged below 18.

"We are studying vaccines that already have emergency-use authorization (EUA) for young people," Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said at an online press conference that was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube channel here on Friday.

Sinovac has been approved for the 3-17 age group, while Pfizer has obtained approval for the 12-17 age group, he noted.

The ministry has discussed the COVID-19 vaccination of children with the Indonesia Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI), Sadikin said.

The government is also monitoring how countries in Europe and Asia, and also the United States are conducting COVID-19 vaccinations of children, he added.

“(The government is tracking data such as) To which group of people they give the vaccine, hence we can issue a comprehensive policy based on (vaccine) usage data from other countries, and also scientific data of emergency authorization issued for the two vaccine producers," he informed.

Based on global data, he said, 99 percent of COVID-19 cases in the under 18 age group can be cured.

China has approved the emergency use of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as three, Sinovac Biotech Ltd has confirmed.

Canada, the US, and the EU have already authorized the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as 12, while the UK has recently approved the use of Pfizer’s vaccine in children aged 12 to 15//ANT