11.4% of children 5-11 years old got at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine
More than one in 10 children aged between five and 11 years old have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, said Singapore's director of medical services, Associate Professor Kenneth Mak, on Wednesday (Jan 5).
Prof Mak said the vaccination exercise is progressing steadily. As at Monday, 11.4 per cent of children having received the vaccine at the paediatric vaccination centres islandwide.
The vaccination exercise for children aged between five and 11 started on Dec 27. It is expected to involve more than 300,000 children in total.
Prof Mak, who was speaking during a press conference by the Covid-19 multi-ministry task force on Wednesday, said the authorities remain confident that the paediatric formulation of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is safe for children.
This has been supported by recent data released in the United States, he added.
Citing a study by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Prof Mak said the study looked into data from the 8.7 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine that have been administered to children in the US as at Dec 19 last year.
There was a low serious adverse event rate, and included reactions like local injection site pain, said Prof Mak. They also included some systemic reactions like fever, headaches, fatigue, vomiting, rashes, seizures and allergic reactions.
He said there were 11 cases of myocarditis (heart inflammation) out of the 8.7 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered. This corresponds to a post-vaccination myocarditis rate of about 1.3 cases per 100,000 people, which is "far lower" than the rate seen in the older population.
Prof Mak added: "So the dose reductions and the use of the paediatric formulations have preserved the efficacy of the vaccine and not compromised on the safety of vaccination."
He also said that the risk of getting myocarditis or pericarditis (inflammation of the outer lining of the heart) due to a Covid-19 infection has been reported to be as high as 45 cases per 100,000 youth aged between 12 and 17 years old.
"So clearly, the risk of myocarditis from vaccination is far lower than the risk of getting that same complication from infection," said Prof Mak.
He added that Singapore has been fortunate so far that not many children here have been infected by Covid-19. But in the US and Britain, there has been a surge in the number of people being infected, in part due to the children there not being vaccinated against Covid-19 yet.
"With the coming Omicron wave, we expect to see more children being infected," he said.
"Rather than deal with the pain of seeing your loved one, your loved child being infected, I urge all parents to accept the invitation to register your child for vaccination at any of our vaccination centres that cater for childhood Covid-19 vaccinations."
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