Australia, which is fast becoming one of the countries with the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19, is likely to start vaccinating children under the age of 12 in January, officials announced today.
Health Secretary Greg Hunt said health regulators were still examining data on the safety of vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, but were not expected to make any decisions this year.
“Their assessment is ‘how they will decide’ in the first part of January, we hope in early January,” Hunt told Australian Broadcast Corp. “But they move as fast as possible.”
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended widespread use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in the 5-11 age group this month, following approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Lt. Gen. John Frowen, head of Australia’s Covid-19 task force, told The Age newspaper that Australia had secured the required doses. “We have indeed purchased sufficient supplies for doses and booster (doses) even for infants,” Frowen said.
On Friday, the percentage of citizens aged 16 and over who have received a dose exceeded the limit of 90%, with 83% having received two. The country has also vaccinated 57.7% of adolescent children aged 12-15, according to the Ministry of Health.
High vaccination rates in Australia have been a major factor in the country’s decision to partially reopen its borders this month for the first time since the start of the pandemic, despite the fact that New South Wales and Victoria are still booming of the variant Delta strain. Today 1,100 cases were reported in these two states, where almost 60% of the country’s population lives. Five more people died from complications of Covid-19.
However, despite the Delta outbreak that led to months of lockdowns in the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, the nationwide report of just 191,000 infections and 1,596 deaths is much lower than in many other developed countries.
Neighboring New Zealand, which is also learning to live with the coronavirus following the adoption of the immunization policy through vaccination, reported 207 new cases and one death, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic to 8,331 and the death toll to 34.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
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Source From: Capital
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