Specialist favors covid vaccination for children as young as 6 years old

Santo Domingo, DR

The Dominican Society of Vaccinology president believes that the reopening of classroom teaching is the right time to inoculate children from six years of age against the coronavirus, especially since there are two highly contagious variants circulating in the country Delta and Alpha. Therefore, pediatrician José Brea del Castillo supports the proposal made in that sense by the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) and also for the vaccine to be applied to these children up to 11 years of age, including Sinovac, manufactured in China.

“I believe that this is the best time for the children to be starting classes, because the vaccination, of course, with the parents’ permission, could be considered in the schools or colleges themselves.”

His argument for vaccination against the virus, which has already killed 4,028 people in the country, is that countries such as China and Chile are already applying it in those age ranges.

“First of all, the CoronaVac vaccine, from Sinovac, has been reportedly studied in children three years old and older with the dose that is currently given to adults, there is no need to make a new formulation, and it proved that it protects and that it is safe. But there is also a report from China where this vaccine, Sinovac’s CoronaVac, has been given to 43 million children in China without any kind of situation whatsoever, on the contrary, of protection,” explained the vaccine expert.

He cited the most recent case of Chile, a country that announced that it started vaccinating children from the age of six in the week that has just ended.

“The Chinese have started vaccination at the age of three, but I believe that we really have to consider vaccination from the age of six, from six to eleven,” he said, pointing out that, like Chile and El Salvador, many countries are already considering this possibility.

How to do it?

The president of the Dominican Society of Vaccinology proposes that there should be a dialogue table and the production of a protocol to issue a document indicating that the first to be vaccinated should be the children who are vulnerable to health situations.

Given that in the country’s minors are being vaccinated from the age of 12, the expert understands that due to the imminent spread of the Delta variant, which is more contagious and affects children, the age range should be extended from six. “Why should children be vaccinated? The first thing is that children can be infected, we have a new situation where we already have a week with a circulation of the Delta variant, but remember that we also have circulation of the Alpha variant, which are both very contagious,” said Brea del Castillo.

FIGURES

Inoculation.

In the last five days, 111,448 vaccines against the virus have been applied; the addition of the 11,521,256 inoculated last Wednesday increased the total yesterday to 11,632,704.

Dosage.

The first dose has been administered to 5,974,744, some 40,292 in the last five days. The gap between those inoculated with a first dose and the delay with the second dose continues to be high. Although 36,340 have been vaccinated in the period indicated, the total is 4,816,740. Those who opted for the third or booster dose picked up the pace, with 841,220, that is, 34,816 more than last Wednesday.