Health Ministry kicks off PICKids vaccination for children aged 5-11

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia kicked off its National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, or PICKids, for children aged five to 11 today.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the child immunisation programme, which will see the PfizerBioNTech vaccines being administered, will further bolster the country’s high vaccination rate and its transition to Covid-19 endemicity.

“This is the missing piece of the puzzle, after our adult and teenager immunisation programmes,” Khairy said during his speech at the launch.

During the press conference following the launch, Khairy said the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) aims to have around 70% of children within this age group jabbed with at least one dose by the end of February.

“The CITF is optimistic and confident of achieving a rate of 70%, but for me, if we can have more than 50% for this cohort by the end of February, I feel that is a good target,” he said, adding that the supply of vaccines is sufficient for the programme.

He added that two 10 micrograms (mcg) doses of the vaccine, each equivalent to about one-third of the adult quantity, will be given to the children about eight weeks apart.

Khairy then stressed that with PICKids being a voluntary programme, the Health Ministry is also focused on winning the confidence of parents to send their children in for their jabs, in order to achieve targeted vaccination rates.

“We want to build the parents’ faith for them to come forward to register their kids to get the vaccine; I myself have registered my six-year-old son under PICKids,” he said.

Khairy observed that 147,282 Covid-19 cases involving five to 12-year-olds, still ineligible for vaccine doses back then, were logged over the past six months, resulting in 26 deaths.

He said that in this year alone, there have been 9,413 Covid-19 cases involving those aged seven to 12.

The minister, when asked about the matter, explained that children will not be subjected to leeway or standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the fully vaccinated, seeing as how the programme remains voluntary.

As of February 1, Khairy said a total of 517,107 registrations were logged through the MySejahtera application from parents looking to get their children vaccinated.

Additionally, Khairy said that the eight-week interval between the children’s doses will allow them to recuperate from the potential side effects, while ensuring an effective immune response before the second shot is given.

“This is based on the recommendations we received from our experts.

“Yes, there are countries with shorter intervals, but we have looked into this matter and have taken into consideration how a longer interval dose will also give a better immune response before getting their second doses,” he said. — The Vibes, February 3, 2022