TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Lambung Mangkurat University expert member on the handling of Covid-19 professor Syamsul Arifin warned that the increasing amount of coronavirus cases among children must be handled more seriously as there are no vaccines available yet for this demographic.

“The latest development on the number of Covid-19 cases among children has grown rapidly in Indonesia,” he said to Antaranews at Banjarmasin, Sunday, June 20. “Parents must not be careless while the government must vigorously educate [the parents].”

The Health Ministry’s data on June 8, 2021, recorded 229,079 Covid-19 children were exposed to the virus and logged 620 deaths. Most deaths happened in the 6-18 years old group who were infected by the virus as 328 of them eventually succumbed to their ordeal.

This means that there are 12.5 percent confirmed cases among those aged between 0-18 years, which means one out of eight were exposed to the coronavirus. 50 percent of the deaths related to the virus were among toddlers.

The professor argues that this is caused by the clinical manifestation where many children are asymptomatic and added with the lack of sufficient healthcare facilities to treat them. He urged adults to take responsibility to take better care of the children’s welfare amidst the pandemic.

Arifin cited research that found people aged between 35-49, up to August 2020, are responsible for 41 percent of new infections.

Read: COVID-19 Vaccines Used in Indonesia Have Been Tested: Health Ministry

ANTARA