Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Ministry of Health has announced that children aged 5 to 11 years will be vaccinated against Covid-19 and the vaccination programme will be rolled out as from January 30, 2023, precisely on the second week of the school term.
It was the public health commissioner, Dr Jude Gedeon, who made the announcement during a press conference yesterday morning at the ministry’s headquarters, Mont Fleuri.
Dr Gedeon said that the ministry received, in December 2022, a donation of 9600 doses of Pfizer biotech vaccines for children from COVAX programme run by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said children aged five to 11 years will be vaccinated with only two doses as per WHO requirements. A dose will be equivalent to one third of a dose taken by an adult.
The doctor added that consent forms for the roll-out will be distributed as from week one to government and private primary schools for parents to sign.
As the vaccine will expire by end of April 2023, he said that parents will have to ensure that their children are vaccinated with the first dose within the first week given that they will have to wait for three weeks for the second dose.
Dr Gedeon said that while it’s true that only a few children get sick from Covid-19, they are the source of transmission.
The ministry was offering the Pfizer vaccine programme for children from 12 years old and for adults and Dr Gedeon said that the vaccination programme has ended due to the expiration of the batch of vaccine in December 2022.
He noted that the country has, among the adults, reached 100% vaccination rate for the first and second doses of vaccination and 60% vaccination rate for the third dose. The vaccination rate among the 12 to 17-year-olds, for the first and second doses, is 70%.
He said that the ministry is looking to import the Moderna vaccine as primary and booster for the continuation of the vaccination programme for the 12 year olds up to adult.
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