HCMC – The Ministry of Health has officially approved the Comirnaty (Pfizer BioNTech) Covid vaccine for use for children aged 5-11, with a dosage lower than that used in people aged 12 and above.
The decision was signed by Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen today, March 1, and took immediate effect.
According to the decision, one dose for children aged 12 years or older is 0.3ml of the vaccine containing 30mcg of mRNA enveloped by lipid nanoparticles, while one dose for children aged 5-11 is 0.2ml of the vaccine containing a third of the amount of mRNA for adults, or 10mcg.
The vaccines are manufactured by Belgium’s Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium NV, Germany’s BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH, the U.S.’s Pharmacia and Upjohn Company LLC and the U.S.’s Hospira Incorporated.
Tuyen said the procedures to purchase nearly 22 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccines for children aged 5-11 have been “basically completed.”
According to the European Medicines Agency, a main study in children aged 5 to 11 showed that the immune response to Comirnaty given at a lower dose (10mcg) in this age group was comparable to that seen with the higher dose (30mcg) in 16- to 25-year-olds.
The most common side effects in children aged 5 to 11 are similar to those in people aged 12 and above. They include pain at the injection site, tiredness, headaches, redness and swelling at the site of injection, muscle pain and chills. These effects are usually mild or moderate and often disappear after a few days of vaccination.
