Director-General of Health Malaysia Tan Sri Noor Hisham announced that the Ministry of Health will now conditionally approve the vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old with Sinovac inactivated vaccine.
At the 370th meeting of the PBKD, the authorities agreed to conditionally approve the use of the Sinovac vaccine produced by China Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Malaysia Pharmaniaga Berhad for children aged 5 to 11.
This is the second COVID-19 vaccine approved for children in our country. The first childhood COVID-19 vaccine was the Pfizer vaccine approved for use on January 6 this year.
The first and second doses of Pfizer’s childhood vaccine are given eight weeks apart. As for Sinovac vaccines, children are the same as adults, and the first and second doses of Sinovac vaccines need to be separated by 28 days.
As of the evening of March 3, 26.8% (952,411) of children aged 5 to 11 in our country had received a dose of the Pfizer Children’s vaccine, according to data from the authorities.
However, as the Ministry of Health now has the conditional approval of the Sinovac children’s vaccine, it means that children between the ages of 5 and 11 can also be vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine in the future.
In any case, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin pointed out that the COVID-19 technical team still recommends that children without allergies receive the Pfizer vaccine.
He pointed out that while the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force – Children (CITF-C) will provide the Sinovac vaccine at a limited number of vaccination centers, he recommends that parents give Pfizer vaccines to children between the ages of 5 and 11 who have no history of allergies.
