KUCHING, April 14: The deadline for vaccination under the Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) is May 15, 2022.
According to the Sarawak Public Communication Unit (Ukas), Deputy Health Minister I Dato Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali stated that the Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) will no longer offer the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine types Comirnaty and Coronavac to children aged five to under 12-years-old beginning May 16, 2022.
“Following the declining trend of parents/guardians’ vaccination demand for children, the MOH has reviewed the implementation period of PICKids.
“Low vaccination demand can lead to high vaccine wastage.
“To avoid wastage of children’s Comirnaty vaccine that is not used within six months after it is released by the manufacturer, a deadline for the first dose must be set,” he said in a media statement on Wednesday.
Dr Noor Azmi went on to say that parents of children who have not received the Covid-19 vaccine must make a decision before May 15, 2022.
“After this date, the Covid-19 vaccine for children of the Comirnaty type will no longer be offered in any public and private health facilities in Malaysia.
“The Coronavac vaccine can only be obtained for a fee at a private facility,” he said.
However, he added, this decision does not involve vaccination for children born in 2017 and have not yet reached the age of five on May 15.
“Children in this category can get the Covid-19 vaccination by registering via the MySejahtera app,” he mentioned.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Azmi mentioned in preparation for the deadline of administering the first dose, the State Health Departments has started the ‘Gerak Gempur’ operation in the field.
“Parents who have registered their children in MySejahtera but have not yet been vaccinated will be contacted by health workers either by phone, social media, or home visits to offer Covid-19 vaccination to their children.
“Those who agree will be given an appointment date before the deadline.
“As of April 12, 2022, a total of 1,371,120 or 38.6 per cent of children have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccines and 195,865 had received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines with an average of one dose vaccine administration of around 4,500 doses per day over the past seven days,” he stated. — DayakDaily
