The Ministry of Public Health is urging parents to vaccinate children between the ages of six months and four years against Covid-19, as it rolls out a new vaccination campaign in a bid to boost immunity among young children nationwide.
The recommendation followed a study that found children in this age range are 1.5 times more likely to get infected with Covid-19 than those aged 5-9 years, said the acting director-general of the Department of Disease Control (DDC), Tares Krassanairawiwong,
Furthermore, children in this age range are three times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those aged 5-9 years, he said, calling on parents not to hesitate to vaccinate their children in order to prevent the disease from spreading among young children.
Children in this age range will receive three shots of 0.2cc (about three microgrammes) of the Pfizer vaccine, according to official guidelines. The second shot is to be given a month after the first, and the third shot two months after the second dose.
The service, Dr Tares said, is free of charge.
“Every child should get the vaccine as soon as possible, particularly those with underlying medical conditions which heighten their risk of developing severe Covid-19 symptoms and dying as a result of the infection,” he said.
The Covid-19 vaccine can be administered along with other vaccines which are commonly administered to children in this age group, said Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, deputy director of the DDC, citing study results by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As more than a million doses of the new Covid-19 vaccine for young children had already been administered in the US, not a single case of severe side effects of the vaccine has been reported so far, he said.