The recommended dose for this age group is 10 micrograms instead of 30 micrograms for those over 12 years of age.
The expert advisory committee of the The World Health Organization (WHO) today recommended extending the use of a reduced dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to 11 years.
The recommended dose for this age group is 10 micrograms instead of 30 micrograms for those over 12 years of age, SAGE noted, which highlighted that those between 5 and 11 years old constitute the lowest priority group, unless they have previous serious ailments.
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) agreed at its last meeting to also recommend that the booster dose of this vaccine is first applied to risk groups, such as the elderly and healthcare personnel, between four and six months after completing the regimen.
WHO experts urged countries with the lowest coverage of the vaccine to focus first on increasing it in the highest-risk groups before offering it to those at the lowest risk.
In countries with medium to high coverage in risk groups, the priority should be to offer the booster dose to these groups before immunizing those with lower priority with the full schedule.
The SAGE described the dose production forecasts for this year as “positive announcements” and considers that it should guarantee the supply of vaccines globally.
“The number of planned monthly doses is sufficient to cover the different coverage scenarios of the different countries, including booster doses,” the director of the Department of Immunization of the World Health Organization (WHO) said at a virtual press conference. Kate O’Brien.
O’Brien clarified, however, that this will only be possible in the event that the distribution of vaccines ceases to be “uneven” and supply limitations are not repeated.
Coverage in 34 countries is still less than 10% of the total population, while in 86 it is around 40%, due to the accumulation of doses produced last year by some countries, the WHO expert recalled. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
