Allow 1 more Covid-19 vaccine to be given to children 6-11 years old in addition to Pfizer

On the afternoon of January 31, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Duong Thi Hong, Deputy Director of the Central Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, said that Vietnam will use two types of vaccines. Covid-19 in the vaccination campaign for children from 5 to under 12 years old. Includes vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Specifically, the Ministry of Health will allow the use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 6-11 years old. This audience is different from the vaccine produced by Pfizer, which is children aged 5-11 years old.

Extending the shelf life of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine by 2 months

Specifically, Moderna vaccine administered to children aged 6-11 years is half the dose of adults, each dose of 0.25 ml contains 50 mcg of vaccine mRNA.

Each vial contains 10 doses of 0.5ml, equivalent to 20 doses for children. This vaccine is not for children 5 years old. At a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius, the vaccine can be stored for 30 days.

With Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 years, the content is 10mcg/dose, 1/3 of the dose compared to the dose for people 12 years of age and older. Each vial contains 10 doses.

At a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius, the vaccine is used for a maximum of 10 weeks. Thus, it will be very convenient for the deployment of vaccination due to the longer storage time than the adult Pfizer vaccine (up to 4 weeks). The dose for children is 2 injections 3 weeks apart, injected intramuscularly, each dose is 0.2 ml. Other countries are now rolling out 3-8 weeks apart.

Common reactions when vaccination Covid-19 for young children includes headache, joint pain, diarrhea, pain at the injection site, muscle pain, and a higher reaction rate at the second dose.

Approximately 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 1,000,000 may have myocarditis and pericarditis. However, to date, countries that are implementing vaccination for children 5-11 years old have not recorded any reports of this reaction.

Ms. Hong recommends that you absolutely do not mix Covid-19 mRNA vaccines for children aged 5-12, but only use 1 vaccine for both doses. This means that children who have received 1 dose of Pfizer will only receive the 2nd dose of Pfizer.

Currently, the Ministry of Health is organizing specialized training to deploy Covid-19 vaccine for young children in localities. The conference was chaired by Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son.

According to Vietnamnet