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KUALA LUMPUR – After the CoronaVac vaccine was granted conditional approval for children aged five to 11, the Health Ministry announced that the Sinovac manufactured vaccine will be available as an option starting tomorrow.
Deputy Health Minister I Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali, in a statement today, said the Sinovac jabs will only be offered at selected vaccination centres (PPVs) for free.
“Parents can check the list of PPVs which offer CoronaVac on a walk-in basis on the Health Ministry and PHCorp’s (ProtectHealth Corporation) websites.
“In addition, parents who have registered their children on the MySejahtera app as dependents will receive a link to book appointments for their children.”
Apart from the national immunisation programme for children (PICKids), he said there are private clinics and hospitals that offer the CoronaVac vaccine to children of this age group for a fee.
Noor Azmi, who is also Bagan Serai MP, added that CoronaVac is the second vaccine approved for children under the age of 12 under PICKids.
“Children who cannot be inoculated with Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine for health reasons will be offered the CoronaVac jab.
“Parents are also given the option to choose the CoronoVac vaccine for their children if they do not agree for their young ones to be vaccinated with Comirnaty jab.”
He said the CoronaVac can only be given to the child after they turn five years old on their birth dates.
However, he said the Comirnaty children formulation is still the preferred vaccine in PICKIds for high-risk children aged five to 11 years who have comorbidities such as those who are immunocompromised or suffering chronic lung diseases, health diseases, diabetes, obesity and other illnesses.
In related news, based on data released on CovidNow as of yesterday, a total of 123,053 children under the age of 12 had been infected with Covid-19 since January.
There are cases which require hospital treatment while some require intensive care. – The Vibes, March 6, 2022
