Health Ministry plans to start vaccination for children aged 12 to 15 years from the 15th of November

The Health Ministry is planning on initiating Pfizer Vaccine deployment for children aged 12 to 15 years from the 15th of November.

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong says COVID-19 poses a lower risk to children however secondary transmission from young school-age children can and does occur in both household and school settings.

Dr Fong says their vaccine deployment program for children aged 15 to 17 years is going well.

He says they note the recent news that the FDA has issued emergency approval for Pfizer to be given to children aged 5 to 11 years, with a pediatric dose of one-third that is given to adults and adolescents.

Dr Fong adds this pediatric dose is given as two shots three weeks apart and is considered by the FDA to be safe and 90% effective.

As of yesterday, 17,650 children aged between 15 to 17 years have been fully vaccinated while 31,923 students have received their first dose of a COVID vaccine.

87.8 percent of the adult target population is now fully vaccinated while 96.6 percent of adults have received one dose.

Meanwhile, Fiji has recorded 39 new cases of COVID-19 of which 22 new cases were recorded on Saturday, 8 new cases on Sunday and 9 new cases in the last 24 hours ending at 8 am yesterday.