More than 1.5 million children unvaccinated against Covid-19, Dewan Rakyat told

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 1,518,773 children below the age of 12 have not been vaccinated against Covid-19, says Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

From the amount, there were 264,750 children who aren't vaccinated because they are below the age of five, said Dr Noor Azmi.

Dr Noor Azmi said under the Covid-19 National Immunisation Program for Children (PICKids), there were 1,777,078 children, or 49.8% of those aged 5 to 11 years old, who have received at least one dose of vaccine as of July 26.

"1,485,265 children (41.8%) had completed two doses of the vaccine," Dr Noor Azmi said during Minister's Question Time in Parliament on Thursday (July 28) morning.

Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru) interjected and asked about the figure of complications faced by children during vaccination.

In response, Dr Noor Azmi said the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) has received 500 suspected adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) cases.

"Out of the 500, there were only 31 serious cases and they were fine after receiving medical treatment at hospital," added Dr Noor Azmi.

Dr Noor Azmi said Malaysia has seen a recent rise in Covid-19 cases and it could be due to the emergence of new sub-variants of the virus.

"That is why the Health Ministry advises parents to bring their children for Covid-19 shots," added Dr Noor Azmi.

Dr Noor Azmi also said the Health Ministry presently has several programmes to raise awareness among parents, among them videos to explain the importance of vaccination and the dissemination of education health contents.

"The Health Ministry is currently implementing several measures to educate the public regarding the need to vaccinate kids to prevent a new wave of infections and to protect those who are not qualified to be immunised," added Noor Azmi.