Hanoi (VNA) – The plan to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19 must be made carefully and thoroughly, experts stressed at a seminar held by the Government online portal on February 18.

Thanks to the effective vaccination strategy, so far, the majority of socio-economic activities have been resumed at the national scale. However, in order for the new normal situation, the completion of COVID-19 vaccination among children aged 5-11 is significant.

Assocc. Prof. Dr. Duong Thi Hong, deputy head of the National Institute Of Hygiene and Epidemiology, cited the statistics from vaccine producers and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as saying that more than 60 countries have injected COVID-19 vaccines into children from 5-11 years old.
 
To date, 80 million doses of vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech have been delivered to countries, she said, adding that the vaccine has been proved to be safe for children.

Hong noted that in Vietnam, 17 million vaccine doses have been administered to children aged 12-17, with over 97 percent of the group receiving at least one dose and 94.6 percent two shots.

Meanwhile, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Minh Dien, Director of the National Children’s Hospital, said that the World Health Organisation has continued to recommend the vaccination for children.

He noted that vaccinated children show might symptoms while getting infected and noone has been hospitalised.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hung, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital No.1, held that the Government’s policy to inoculate children against COVID-19 is right.

In HCM City, the vaccination for children aged 12-18 has been implemented with utmost safety, allowing children from grades 6-12 to return to school. The number of hospitalised children due to COVID-19 has fallen sharply to 163 cases in November 2021 and 75 in January 2022, he said.

Noting that 19.3 percent of children under 18 years old are infected with COVID-19, Dien said that children with underlying diseases should receive special attention.

Hong said that the National Institute Of Hygiene and Epidemiology will organise rehearsals on COVID-19 vaccination for children of this age group.

She stressed the need for teachers to engage in vaccination activities at schools. Pediatricians should give instructions to medical workers on pre-vaccination screening activities and post-vaccination health supervision to ensure safety.

The Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital No.1 underlined that it is necessary to create consensus among parents, teachers and students on the vaccination for children to get them understand the benefits of the move./.