PARENTS of children aged five to 12 who have gotten their kids vaccinated said they were moved to do so for the sake of everyone’s safety.

Parents told The Malaysian Insight that the first thing they are going to do is travel between states.

The Health Ministry today launched the vaccination programme for children in the age group under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Kids (PICKids).

Parents can now visit vaccination centres across the country to have their children inoculated.

Suchana Das, 33, who brought her six-year-old to World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur for vaccination today said she now feels safer to travel.

Now that my kid is vaccinated as well, I feel more comfortable travelling to other states.

“Since my kid is already in school, I don’t have to worry much since she is vaccinated,” said Suchana.

She added that the whole process for vaccination was very smooth as it only took about an hour.

“If it takes more than an hour, it is probably because of the kids who cry due to their fear of needles.

Earlier today, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said vaccination for kids is important to lower their risk of developing multisystem inflammation syndrome, long Covid, and death.

He said that 9,413 cases of Covid-19 involving unvaccinated children aged seven to 11 have been recorded since January 1 this year.

He also said the Health Ministry did not rush into using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children, as clinical and real-world data from other countries such as Singapore had been carefully studied prior to making the decision.

Khairy also said PICKids is a voluntary programme and no restrictions will be imposed on unvaccinated children.

Ready to travel

IT consultant Arif Zainal, 35, said it is a good move by the government to get children vaccinated.

“My wife and I barely travelled since our seven-year-old was not vaccinated, but now that he is, we feel safer.

“Also, Hari Raya is coming in a couple of months, and now with my kid vaccinated, we can finally return to our hometown in Johor,” said Arif.

He added that everyone should get their children vaccinated as it would make the community a safer place.

“It won’t make much difference if my son is the only one vaccinated among his classmates.”

Housewife Susan Liew, 42, hoped the vaccination for kids was done earlier.

“If the vaccination for kids was done earlier, we could have gone for a holiday during Chinese New Year.

“We have not been anywhere for the past year since our nine-year-old is not vaccinated.

“There was always a sense of fear in me to bring my kid out as Covid-19 cases consistently remain at four digits.

“I think parents in general will feel more confident now with their kids being vaccinated,” she said. – February 3, 2022.