Health Ministry concerned about slowdown in COVID vaccination rate for children

On the eve of the start of the campaign to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 to 11-years-old against COVID-19, the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony has raised concern about a noticeable slowdown in the vaccination rate among children ages 12 to 17-years-old.

At the start of the teenage vaccination campaign, thousands of parents took their children to take the Pfizer jab, but there has been a drastic slowdown in the vaccination rate among that age group, which is worrying Health Authorities. Less than 30% of children ages 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated.

During today’s COVID-19 update, the Health Minister said there is now a challenge in getting more children vaccinated.

“It is an area of concern for us, we have to re-double our efforts with the Ministry of Education to make sure that more of the persons who are at school or within the school-age get their vaccination”, Dr. Anthony said.

The Ministry of Health also wants to target out-of-school youths and is pushing for the assistance of parents to get their children vaccinated.

One of the big challenges that the Ministry is facing is that while children who test positive would experience a mild form of the virus, in other children, there are cases of multi-systemic disorders which could lead to them being hit with a more severe form of the virus.

“It is something that we have to monitor, so children need to be vaccinated to keep them safe and the Pfizer vaccine is what we are using to ensure that we vaccinate this population,” the Minister explained.

The Minister is appealing to parents, teachers, and influential persons in communities across the country to encourage young people between the ages of 12-17 to get vaccinated so that they could be properly protected against COVID-19.