HCMC – The Ministry of Health has decided to vaccinate children aged between 12 and 17 nationwide against Covid-19 from next month, using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
At a meeting with the relevant agencies on the vaccination of children on October 26, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said the vaccine is safe for children and has been recommended for children by the World Health Organization, the local media reported.
Long asked the relevant agencies and local authorities to prepare for the child vaccination campaign.
The vaccine will be administered to children aged 16 and 17 first and then expanded to younger children.
Parents or guardians are required to give a written consent on the vaccination of their children, while children must have their health properly checked before the inoculation.
Minister Long stressed that safety is the top priority in the vaccination of children. Local medical centers must keep a close watch on children after the vaccine is administered.
The vaccination campaign for children will be launched firstly in places that have practiced social distancing, have a high coronavirus transmission risk and a high population density.
The Ministry of Health assigned the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology to organize a training course on the vaccination for children for all cities and provinces on October 29.
Meanwhile, cities and provinces should call on residents to let their children at 12 and 17 years of age get vaccinated.
The ministry has worked out a plan to vaccinate younger children in 2022, Long added.
The Pfizer vaccine has been administered to children aged between 12 and 17 in 30 countries. On October 23, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the vaccine could be used for children in this age group.
Today, HCMC started administering Pfizer to children aged 16 and 17 in Cu Chi District. Some 1,500 students of the Cu Chi and Tan Thong Hoi High Schools and the Cu Chi Center for Continuing Education have come to the vaccination site at the Cu Chi Town Primary School.
Cu Chi District has more than 41,600 students aged between 12 and 17. The district will vaccinate 8,300 students per day and complete the vaccination campaign within five days.
Today, District 1 also began vaccinating children against Covid-19 at three inoculation venues.
Tomorrow, the vaccination campaign for children will be conducted citywide.
HCMC has some 780,000 children aged between 12 and 17, and it will vaccinate over 148,000 children per day with 742 vaccination teams.
