Malaysia starts vaccinating kids aged 5 to 11 amid worries over school clusters

Malaysia kicked off its Covid-19 vaccination drive for children aged five to 11 on Thursday (Feb 3) amid rising concerns over school clusters.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, however, said schools would be kept open as much as possible, as the majority of infections were asymptomatic or mild, and none fell into the severe or critical categories.

“There are 190 active education clusters right now, and the number of cases which are Category 4 or 5 is zero. This means that vaccination works. Schools can stay open, school closure is the last option,” Mr Khairy told a news conference after launching the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children.

“If we feel that we need to close the school, it will be temporary. We want to keep schools open as much as possible. This is very important,” he said, adding that only 14 schools had to be closed so far due to Covid-19.

The highest number of clusters involved boarding schools, with a total of 108.

Mr Khairy acknowledged that some parents were concerned about adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccine.

He said vaccination is not mandatory, but he has registered his youngest son, aged six, for the jab. His two other children, who are teens, are already vaccinated.

“We also looked at the situation in Singapore, they have a similar racial composition to Malaysia, and we found that there were no serious side effects,” said Mr Khairy.

Malaysia is administering the pediatric dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to children as a two-dose regime with an eight-week interval.

It is targeting 70 percent of school-going children, aged between seven and 11, to receive their first dose within the next two months, and for 50 percent of the overall 3.6 million children from the age of five to receive their first dose by the end of February.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES