Vietnam to implement large-scale COVID-19 vaccination for children 12 to 17

According to information from the Ministry of Health, by the end of October the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered to children aged 12-17. Many parents are looking forward to their children being vaccinated and will soon be returning to school.

Vietnam has ordered more than 20 million doses of vaccine from the Pfizer pharmaceutical company to vaccinate 9 million children from 12-17 years old. This batch of vaccines will arrive in Vietnam by the end of October 2021. To deploy vaccination for children at the end of this October, the Ministry of Health is urgently implementing instructions and training for the health system and vaccination facilities. Many localities have already prepared to vaccinate children. It is the goal that in the fourth quarter of this year, 95% of children aged 12-17, or 6th to 12th grade students, will be vaccinated.

The Pfizer vaccine for the 12 1o 17-year-old children, although not different in dosage compared to the vaccine for adults, requires professional guidance to be administered to children. In the United States, adolescents 12 to 17 years of age are vaccinated with 2 doses of Pfizer, each dose with 30 mcg and the interval between 2 doses is 3 weeks. Younger children, 5 to 11-years-old, will receive a lower dose with 10mcg. Possible side effects reactions in vaccinated children are similar to adults, including: fatigue, headache, fever, muscle aches, etc. In many countries, vaccinating children against COVID-19 is considered an important solution to bolster reopenings of schools and reintegrating children into normal social activities and protecting them from exposure to strains of COVID.

In Ho Chi Minh City, the region with the highest case of infections in the country during this 4th outbreak, many parents eagerly look forward to the day their children can be vaccinated against COVID-19 to ensure safety and hope that their children will be back to school soon.