Children aged five to 11 to get second jab after eight weeks

PORT DICKSON: The Health Ministry decided to give children aged between five and 11 their second Covid-19 dose after an eight-week interval to ensure fewer cases with side effects, says Khairy Jamaluddin.

The Health Minister said the effectiveness and protection of the vaccine was also the same if given after three or eight weeks.

He said the ministry’s technical committee was more comfortable with an eight-week interval after looking at the number of cases of children in the age group who had side effects in the United States.

“I asked my team during a meeting on Friday and was told that for now, we will maintain the eight-week interval.

“However, this can be revised from time to time,” he told reporters after launching the ministry’ Wellness Hub at the Bagan Pinang health clinic yesterday.

“The technical team feels that if the interval is longer, the number of cases with side effects would be lower, even with the (current) Omicron wave,” he added.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) kicked off in the Klang Valley on Feb 3.

As of Feb 7, some 663,641 children aged five to 11 have registered for their shots.

The vaccine will be administered over two doses with an eight-week interval.

Each dose will be 0.2ml and contains 10 micrograms of mRNA vaccine, which is one-third of what is given to adults.

The vaccine programme is not compulsory and would prioritise children with underlying conditions such as chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, immunosuppression, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and nerve disease.

There are an estimated four million children aged between five and 12 who are eligible to receive the jabs.

To date, a total of 97,975 children aged five to 11, or 2.7% of the group in Malaysia, have received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

They were given the vaccine under PICKids.

Meanwhile, based on the CovidNow website, a total of 13,068,547 people or 55.8% of the adult population had received their booster dose as of Friday.

A total of 22,935,622 people or 98% of adults have completed their vaccination while 99.2% or 23,211,391 have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

As for adolescents aged 12 to 17, a total of 2,795,030 or 88.8% have completed their vaccination while 2,873,015 or 91.3% have received at least one dose of the vaccine, Bernama reported.

On Friday, a total of 160,193 vaccine doses were dispensed, with 20,703 as the first dose, 1,578 the second dose and 137,912 as booster dose, bringing the cumulative total of vaccine doses administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme to 64,776,270.

According to the Health Ministry’s Github portal, 24 Covid-19 deaths were reported on Friday, five in Kedah, four each in Johor and Sabah, three each in Pahang and Perak, two in Negri Sembilan and one each in Perlis, Selangor and Terengganu.

To avoid congestion at PPV, MOH advises that only a parent or guardian accompanies their child to the PPV for vaccination.

As a preparation for the vaccination, make sure the child gets adequate rest, eats and drinks before going to PPV. pic.twitter.com/yFTzR749pE — Vaksin COVID-19(@JKJAVMY) February 13, 2022