Local health authorities are already examining administering COVID-19 vaccines to children from the ages of 5 to 11 year, according to the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony.
This was disclosed by Anthony yesterday during his daily COVID-19 update where he stated that the ministry will soon have another group of persons to inoculate. This comes in light of reports that the United States Food and Drug Administration may possibly green light the use of a lower dose of the Pfizer vaccines for children in that age category.
According to reports, the FDA is set to consider Pfizer’s application and the possibility exists that first doses of the vaccine can be delivered to children as early as November as long as the authorisation is granted.
“Starting from next week we are already examining the possibility of doing the vaccination for the 11-5 age group because we are anticipating that the US-FDA would approve the Pfizer vaccine for this age group,” Anthony stated during the update.
He further noted that the country’s current adolescent vaccination campaign has seen a drop in numbers as he underscored that the ministry will continue going to schools and working with the Ministry of Education to ensure children are inoculated.
Anthony said that the ministry will target those groups of children who may be of age but do not attend school to be able to give them a vaccine. “Our approach has been that once we go to a school we open it up to the entire community so anybody within that age group can come to the school which we are operating in and we have seen some of that but in other cases I think the people felt that only the people going to that school can come and I think that’s caused some confusion.”
The health minister mentioned that the two ministries will continue to work together to correct those issues and appeal to more persons with the aim of increasing the vaccine uptake.
