Vaccination of children aged 5-11 starts
Vaccination of children aged 5-11 with the Pfizer/BioNTec vaccine against Covid-19 started on Wednesday. The vaccine contains 1/3 of the adult dose and the second dose will be administered after 21 days.
“Their vaccination will primarily protect them, while at the same time reduce the number of cases in schools and boost herd immunity levels within society in general,” said Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and member of the government’s experts committee Vana Papaevangelou.
Papaevangelou said that the data from the US and Israel on the safety of vaccines for children of this age are excellent.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than five million children have received the first dose and 1.8 million children have completed their two-dose vaccination in the US.
“It is emphasized that there is no indication of unexpected side effects from the administration of the vaccine to children 5-11 years old, nor have episodes of myocarditis-pericarditis been recorded after the vaccination,” Papaevangelou said.
Despite expectations that the fourth wave of the coronavirus would have started to ease by now, a daily record of 130 Covid-19 deaths were confirmed on Tuesday.
[AMNA]
