The Public Health Commission, meeting this Tuesday, has approved expanding vaccination against coronavirus in Spain to children aged 5 to 11 years. This decision comes after the approval of the European Medicines Agency, which has endorsed the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children under 12 years of age and up to 5 years of age.
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, has recalled that the dose of the vaccine indicated for children is less than that for adults, that it does not need dissolution and will be given in two doses.
The first vials of the coronavirus vaccines for children are scheduled to arrive in Spain on December 13: from there they will be distributed among the communities, which will be able to start the vaccination process from the second half of December.
Health expects to receive between this month of December and January 3.3 million vaccines, which would be enough to inoculate the first dose to practically all children between 5 and 11 years old (3,287,111, according to the National Institute of Statistics ). The second dose will be inoculated eight weeks later.
As of December 15, the autonomous communities will be able to vaccinate children under 12 years of age against COVID-19
Speaking to the press in Brussels, where he is attending a meeting of Health Ministers of the European Union, Darias trusted that “the best decisions” will be made at the meeting of the Public Health Commission so that “the better conditions” once the vaccines arrive.
Darias also explained that the autonomous communities will be responsible for establishing the “modality” of vaccination for children, and that the doses will be distributed “proportionally to the child population” that each of them has.
Children under 12 years of age are the group with the highest incidence of COVID-19
Children under 12 years of age are the only age group that had not begun to be vaccinated, and it is currently the one with the highest cumulative incidence in the last 14 days: 412 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest Health report, from the past 3 December, almost double the average for the entire population in Spain (248 cases), more than triple that of adolescents, the last to join the vaccination strategy (133 cases) and far from the second group with the highest incidence, adults aged 40-49 years (almost 300 cases).
“The Public Health Commission has approved the vaccination of these age cohorts, to reduce the burden of disease in this group and transmission in the family environment, in educational centers and in the community. In this sense, the Commission highlights the importance of protecting minors of these ages not only from the disease in its acute facet, but also from possible future conditions and from persistent Covid syndrome, ”says the statement sent by Health.
A vaccine recommended by pediatricians
The Vaccine Advisory Committee of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (CAV-AEP) recommended vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 for all children aged 5 to 11 years in a statement on November 25 based on the following reasons :
.
