Children 12 to 18 years old will be able to get their vaccine booster doses come Friday, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh announced yesterday.
Speaking during the ministry’s virtual COVID-19 media conference, Deyalsingh said the change comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently approved the doses.
“WHO has now signed off on the administration of boosters, Pfizer boosters, for that age group and our local Technical Advisory Group, under the chairmanship of the Chief Medical Officer, met on Monday… and they have also signed off,” Deyalsingh said.
He said sites are already being prepared for the rollout. He noted the boosters will only be available to children who received their second dose more than six months ago, just like the adults. He made a special plea for those who have comorbidities to access the doses.
“We urge parents and children in that 12 to 18 age group, especially those who are immunocompromised, whether you have diabetes, sickle cell anaemia, cardiac disease, cancers - anything that predisposes you to being immunocompromised. If you are unsure, please speak with your paediatrician or family physician. Those boosters are highly recommended for those subpopulations of the 12 to 18,” he said.
While there remains no final word on when the paediatric Pfizer doses for children ages five to 11 donated by Spain are expected to arrive, the Minister is hoping to be able to give a definitive date within a week.
He said the number of sites for these doses will be expanded to also include some health centres, along with the mass vaccination sites.
Responding to questions from the media, he said it is not feasible for these doses to be administered in the school system.
“Because it is a younger cohort of children who may be anxious, we feel it is better to have it in a controlled setting where you have the necessary emergency response because the last thing you want is for one parent or one child to have an event and you can’t respond appropriately,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deyalsingh said the country was able to return to herd immunity level of coverage against Measles, Mumps and Rubella.
“The last update I had from nurse Sookchan is that we have more or less closed that gap because we did a lot, a lot, a lot of phone calling. We did a lot of convincing. We did a lot of on-the-ground work in communities and the last information I had from nurse Sookchan, was that we basically closed the gap on those 2,000 who we had to get to take us back up to over 95 per cent,” he said.
In February, the Minister revealed that while herd immunity for the disease was around 95 per cent, the country’s coverage dipped to around 83 to 85 per cent during the course of the pandemic.
