KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 – The government has launched the National COVID-19 Children’s Immunization Program (PICKids) on February 3, 2022 as a measure to reduce COVID-19 transmission and complications of COVID-19 infection among children. For this purpose the government has made the procurement of Comirnaty Vaccine formulary children based on 80 per cent of the total population of children aged 5 to under 12 years.
As of April 12, 2022, a total of 1,371,120 or 38.6% of children had received at least 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 195,865 had received 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine with an average of 1 dose vaccine administration of around 4,500 doses per day over the past 7 days. Following the declining trend of parental/guardian vaccination demand for children, the MOH has reviewed the implementation period of PICKids.
Low vaccination demand can lead to high vaccine wastage. To avoid wastage of children’s Comirnaty vaccine that is not used within 6 months after its release by the manufacturer, the setting of a dose deadline of 1 should be made.
Based on the current situation, the COVID-19 Immunization Task Force (CITF-C) Meeting has decided 15 May 2022 as the deadline for the administration of Dose 1 of COVID-19 Vaccine under PICKids. Accordingly, from 16 May 2022, the MOH will no longer offer 1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine type Comirnaty and CoronaVac to children aged 5 to under 12 years.
With this announcement, parents of children who have not received the COVID-19 Vaccine, will have to decide on the COVID-19 vaccination before May 15, 2022. After this date, the COVID-19 vaccine for children of the Comirnaty type will no longer be offered anywhere- which public and private health facilities in Malaysia. While the Coronavac vaccine can only be obtained for a fee at private facilities.
However, this decision does not involve vaccination for children born in 2017 and not yet reaching the age of 5 years on 15 May 2022. Children in this category can get the COVID-19 vaccination by registering in the MySejahtera Application. Details on the vaccination of this group will be clarified in the near future.
In addition, the CITF-C Meeting also agreed to make amendments to the COVID-19 Vaccine Injection Consent Form for Children under 18 years of age. This new form no longer has a clause; ”I am responsible for the risks that may occur to children as a result of my decision/action because the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the side effects ”.
The abolition of this clause is intended to avoid confusion and expose existing practices which the MOH has never neglected and is always ready to provide appropriate health assistance in the event of related side effects as a result of vaccine reception.
In preparation for the Dose 1 deadline, the State Health Departments have started the “Gerak Gempur” operation in the field. Parents who have registered their children in MySejahtera but have not yet been vaccinated will be contacted by health workers either by phone, social media or home visits to offer COVID-19 vaccination to their children. Agreeing parents will be given an appointment date before the dose deadline 1.
Parents who have not registered their child for COVID19 vaccination, can register their child in MySejahtera no later than 8 May 2022. This allows a link to the appointment booking system to be provided before the Dose 1 deadline. I urge parents who have not yet decided not to miss the chance to get the vaccine for free through PICKids before the Dose 1 deadline. Choose to vaccinate your child to avoid severe complications of COVID-19 infection.
