Andina

Peru: COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 10-11 to kick off on Jan 24

Photo: ANDINA/Jhonel Rodríguez

Photo: ANDINA/Jhonel Rodríguez

12:05 | Lima, Jan. 20.

The vaccination against COVID-19 of children aged between 5 and 11 years old will begin on January 24, with the first group of minors (aged 10 to 11) and those with comorbidities (aged 5 to 11), Health Ministry (Minsa) Immunization Director Gabriela Jimenez announced on Thursday.

"We are practically getting everything ready so that we can start vaccinating children in an organized manner this Monday," she told RPP Noticias.

The director indicated that the schedule for the administration of this vaccine is ready and was delivered to the National Center for Supply of Strategic Resources in Health (Cenares) to then proceed with the organized distribution of doses to each region.

The official added that coordination with the Education Ministry (Minedu) has already been completed for the proper implementation of rooms at schools nationwide.

Moreover, she said that there is already a list of hospitals where children with comorbidities will be immunized against COVID-19.

Jimenez reiterated that vaccination against COVID-19 of children aged 5 to 11 will be a good opportunity to also immunize this age group against influenza and human papillomavirus (HPV) simultaneously.

According to the official, Minsa has the goal of giving COVID-19 vaccines to 70% of the 900,000 children aged 10 to 11, as well as minors with comorbidities aged 5 to 11, in merely five days.

"This implies that we need to administer a minimum of 80,000 doses per day in the scenarios where the vaccines are already distributed, such as Lima, Callao, Lima provinces, as well as in Ica, La Libertad, and Junin (regions)," she noted.

Lastly, Jimenez argued that meeting this goal is simple considering that Minsa has been administering 1.5 million doses per week.

(END) LIT/MVB

Published: 1/20/2022