The government of Australia has officially announced that children as young as five years old will now become eligible to get the covid-19 vaccination to fight the deadly virus. Yes, they will now be receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Australia. As per the reports, the vaccination will be available to the children beginning next month i.e January.
The official announcement regarding the news was made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday. Morrison’s official statement on Friday stated, “In one month from today, around 2.27 million Aussie kids aged five to 11 years will have the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated against COVID-19.” “This will bring great relief to so many mums and dads, who now have a choice on what’s best for their kids. They can have peace of mind knowing this has the tick from the best medical regulators in the world,” he further stated.
A release from the prime minister’s office noted that the decision was finally made only after recommendations from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation were accepted by the Australian government for providing the vaccination doses to the children. Children between the ages of five and 11 years old will be eligible to only get one-third of the vaccine dose typically given to those aged 12 years and older. According to the reports, Australia’s regulatory agency for therapeutics and its immunization advisory group will also be reviewing whether children who are all as young as six years old are eligible to take the Moderna vaccine or not.
The Moderna vaccine has not been authorized for children as young as six years old in the United States. As per the official statement given by the company in late October, it was safe and effective in kids between the ages of six and 11 years old. The announcement made by Morrison comes as more countries are seeking to ramp up vaccine distribution. Countries are looking forward to giving vaccination doses by making younger populations eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccine shots. Health officials have also recently highlighted the fact that many people need to get vaccinated against the covid-19 virus to decrease the case counts and to stop the spread of more variants. One variant countries are closely tracking is the omicron variant.
The virus was first detected last month and the researchers are also racing to see how contagious and severe omicron is and how effective the current vaccines are against it. The news by Pfizer was released as encouraging news on Wednesday which stated that the newly found omicron variant is neutralized by three doses of their vaccine, which is as per the preliminary studies. Ever since the news of Australia deciding to give the covid-19 vaccinations to the young children in the country was out it has hit the headlines and has got a lot of attention.
