“If that’s the decision”, Portugal could start vaccinating children between the ages of 5 and 11 in January – News
In favor of vaccinating children, aged between 5 and 11, a director-general explained why she defends this measure.
“The group from 0 to 9 years old is the group where the virus circulates without barriers, it circulates freely”, he emphasizes.
“Case graves of Covid in children”, he stated in an interview with journalist Vítor Gonçalves, in the “Grande Interview” of RTP.
These cases are registered among children with previous illnesses (comorbidities), as in “previous healthy children”.
In addition, Graça Freitas warns: the “several isolations” of children with mild illness “also have an impact on mental health”.
Asked whether Portugal will have pediatric dose vaccines to inoculate this age group, from 5 to 11 years old, Graça Freiras confirms this availability.
“Portugal will have vaccines, if that’s the decision, to [vacinar] all children,” he said.
Remember that the pediatric dose comprises two doses of a fraction of 10 micrograms of the vaccine, one third of the dose volume administered to people over 12 years of age.
The first vaccines arrive in Portugal in December and vaccination may start as early as January. A group of pediatric specialists was asked to prepare a recommendation and this opinion will be delivered this Thursday.
“We cannot be waiting for a decision for the logistical mechanism to work”, he justified. If the measure is not approved, because vaccines can be “donated or sold”.
Also this Wednesday, the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) defended that it can be considered “a vaccination of all children between 5 and 11 years of age, taking into account the epidemiological situation at national level”, but that those at risk of developing severe disease should be considered a priority group.
O ECDC report, published today, I found that “children aged 5-11 years who are at risk for developing severe disease should be evaluated as a priority group for vaccination against covid-19, just as in other age groups.”
According to the statement, “hospitalization rates and the proportion of cases hospitalized with covid-19 in children aged between 5 and 11 years have increased, as have cases in other age groups, but remain at lower levels than in adults”.
Thus, ECDC defends that they are children without known risk factors “also susceptible to serious illness and hospitalization”, it can be considered “a vaccination of all children between 5 and 11 years of age, taking into account the epidemiological situation a National level “.