Before the pandemic, five grandsons of Mamik Nariati received free vaccinations against diseases such as polio, mumps and hepatitis B in schools in Surabaya, East Java.
“But since the online school was opened last year, there have been no more immunization programs,” she told Al Jazeera.
Sarigita Andika Wati, the mother of three children in Tabanan Regency, Bali, has a similar story: “My children cannot go to school, so they cannot get free immunizations.”
According to data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, 800,000 Indonesian children missed routine vaccination last year due to service disruptions due to the pandemic. These young people are one of them-an increase compared to the previous year By 40%.