SINGAPORE: According to a new study done in Singapore, the COVID-19 vaccination has been found to provide “added protection” against Omicron infections in children and adolescents who were previously infected with the virus compared to those who have recovered and remained unvaccinated.
What this means, said the lead author of the study, is that parents must not only rely on past COVID-19 infections as immunity against the Omicron variant.
“Our study found that getting vaccinated has added protection against variants for children and adolescents who had recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection,” said Associate Professor Yung Chee Fu, who led the study that was jointly conducted by KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), National Centre for Infectious Disease and the Ministry of Health (MOH).
“Since many in the Singapore population including children and adolescents have already caught COVID-19, the study findings are directly relevant to our community.
“For unvaccinated individuals who have recovered from COVID-19, (the) vaccination will provide added protection, and they can get vaccinated three months after their infection,” added Assoc Prof Yung, who is also a senior consultant at the Infectious Disease Service of KKH’s Department of Paediatrics.
The study found that in children aged from five to 11 who had been previously infected with COVID-19, the vaccination provided 74 per cent protection against the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant.
For previously infected children aged from 12 to 17, the vaccine provided 85.7 per cent of protection against the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant.
The study, published in May, was conducted on about 150,000 people aged from five to 17 years old who had previously been infected with COVID-19 from January 2020 to December 2022, said KKH in a press release on Monday (Jun 19).
The vaccination also provided 62.8 per cent protection against the Omicron XBB variant in children and 57.9 per cent protection in adolescents.
KKH noted that the vaccine protection conferred against the XBB variant with two vaccine doses was lower and added that this was due to the “significant molecular changes reported in the XBB variant making it more transmissible”.
“The benefits of vaccination against emerging Omicron variants such as XBB, which is highly transmissible, remain significant in children and adolescents,” said Assoc Prof Mr Yung.