CHILDREN below the age of 12 are expected to be vaccinated against Covid-19 sometime next year, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today. 

Given that Covid-19 cases in this age group are on the upward trajectory, Khairy said they are considered one of the most vulnerable groups in the society, along with the elderly.  

“Hopefully, we will get regulatory approval for vaccinations for children under the age of 12. The number of cases for those under 12 is going up.  

“Most are light (mild cases) but nonetheless we don’t know what the effect of Long Covid on children will be. We don’t want them getting infected in the first place.

“So, hopefully children will get vaccinated sometime next year and they will have that shield against Covid,” Khairy said at the Malaysian Medical Association’s Malaysia Doctors’ Day Celebration. 

Last year, there were 8,478 cases reported among children below the age of 12. However, as of August 30 this year, cases have increased to a staggering 26 times more with 220,987 infections reported among children of the same age group.

Khairy also said that the ministry is looking forward to continuing a good working relationship with the private healthcare sector.

“We have got immunisation for teenagers now. We want to start immunisation for the high-risk elderly people, immunocompromised people, those with comorbidities, the frontliners to get their third or booster shot after this. So, we increase the level of immunity for the people who are at high risk.

For that we need support from our private GP friends,” he said.

Another possibility Khairy is said to be looking at is monitoring for home isolation.

He said with public healthcare overly occupied, he wants to forge a working relationship with private GPs to monitor home isolation cases.

“As we move towards treating Covid-19 at the hospitals and ICU because of vaccinations, the symptoms are milder and are asymptomatic. So, what we want to see is more home isolation.

“But for home isolation, we also need people to monitor them and make sure they don’t get sick and not fall seriously ill.

“We need people just to ask how you are doing. We can’t do that in the government sector alone. We need the private GPs to support us, with the private CACs (Covid-19 Assessment Centre) or virtual CACs.

“We’ll work together and share the burden and we will make sure the resources are available for private GPs to help us. Then, we can start thinking about transitioning more towards normalcy,” he said. – October 10, 2021.