The overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low, a new analysis of British Covid infection data confirms.
Santo Domingo, DR
The Dominican Republic has a population of children between 5 and 11 years of age of around 1,350,000, which would be the target population to be vaccinated against Covid-19 once the immunization process against this population is launched, as agreed in the meeting held by the health authorities and the medical community.
This Monday, after a second meeting with the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) and representatives of Specialized Medical Societies, the Ministry of Public Health informed that the vaccination of minors from 5 to 11 years of age with two doses of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac was approved, as it is the biological vaccine available in the country, but the date was not specified.
The entity that pediatrician groups of the country issued yesterday a document on vaccination in children from five to eleven years old, consulting and seeking consensus among its members.
Consulted on the matter yesterday, Dr. Luz Herrera, president of the Dominican Society of Pediatrics, an entity that had initially asked for a waiting period until more scientific evidence on the effectiveness of the vaccine in this population was available, informed that they have asked the authorities to report what is the reality of the Covid-19 virus among Dominican children.
Herrera said that between five and 11 years, the country has around 1,350,000 children. As president of the Pediatrics Society, she understands that vaccinating them should depend on the epidemiological reality of the virus in that population group.
“We are not opposed to vaccination, what we want is for the authorities to say what is the reality of Covid-19 among children between five and 11 years of age, because we understand that the decision to vaccinate them should depend on the epidemiological reality of the virus in them, which we do not know so far,” explained Herrera.
Decided in a meeting
On Monday afternoon, acting as spokesperson, Dr. Eddy Pérez Then, advisor to the Ministry of Health on COVID-19, informed that the vaccination of minors from 5 to 11 years of age with two doses of Sinovac was approved, after a second meeting with representatives of the Dominican Medical Association, specialized medical societies and representatives of the Health Cabinet.
The meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was headed by Dr. Daniel Rivera, who assured that the main interest was to protect the child population. For this reason, they have sought the consensus of specialists in various areas, mainly pediatrics.