THE government will start vaccinating children ages 5 to 11 beginning next month, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

Khairy said children in this age category would receive paediatric doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Cominarty vaccine, which he said is proven to be safe and effective.

“The Health Ministry will start administering Covid-19 vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 starting February, as soon as the Pfizer vaccine (for children) arrives in Malaysia from January 31.

“The launch of the vaccination programme will be held on February 3 at Tunku Azizah Hospital in Kuala Lumpur,” Khairy said at a press conference in Parliament today.

Booking for vaccination appointments through MySejahtera will be open in stages at the end of this month, Khairy added.

Either the father or mother can register the child as a dependent in their MySejahtera application.

“Appointments will first be opened to parents residing in the Klang Valley,” Khairy added.

In terms of priority, appointments will be given to children with health issues that put them at higher risk.

Khairy listed these health problems as chronic respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease, immunosuppression, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and neurological diseases.

On the dosage for children, Khairy said each dose given will be 0.2 mL containing 10mcg of mRNA vaccine.

“This dose is one third of the doses used in adults,” he said. – January 20, 2022.