Portugal, France begin vaccinating younger children – Medical Xpress

Share Article


Forget Password?
Learn more
share this!
1
2
Share
Email
December 18, 2021

Portugal, one of the countries with the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates worldwide, began inoculating over-fives Saturday, and France said it was ready to roll out jabs for them from next week.

Europe is currently battling to rein in the spread of the highly mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus, believed to be much more infectious, and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned the new strain could be dominant in Europe by mid-January.
A number of countries have already opened up their immunisation drives to , even though the EU’s health agency has warned that jabs alone will not be sufficient to stop the variant’s rise.
In Portugal, where 88.9 percent of the population is vaccinated, more than 60,000 aged between five and 11 were set to receive their first jab of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine this weekend.
And in France, health minister Olivier Veran said that jabs will start to be administered to children in the same age group from Wednesday.
“If all goes well, we will start vaccination of children on the afternoon of December 22 in specially adapted centres,” he told France Inter radio.
But even as children line up to get jabs, the EU health agency ECDC has said measures like mask-wearing, distance working and the prevention of crowds were essential to reduce the burden on healthcare systems in the time available, with vaccines alone taking too long.
The EU’s medicines watchdog last month approved the lower-dosage Pfizer-BioNTech shot for five to 11-year-olds, an age group experiencing high coronavirus infection rates across the continent.
Denmark, which has seen a surge in cases attributed to the new Omicron variant, and some Austrian regions already began offering jabs to younger kids in November.
The United States was the first large country to take the plunge and has so far vaccinated more than five million children in the five-to-11 age bracket.


Explore further

Europe ramps up COVID vaccine drive for children as Omicron rampages


Explore further
© 2021 AFP
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Feedback to editors
Dec 17, 2021
0
Dec 16, 2021
0
Dec 16, 2021
0
Dec 15, 2021
0
Dec 15, 2021
0
12 hours ago
12 hours ago
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 15, 2021
Dec 15, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 12, 2021
Dec 06, 2021
Dec 04, 2021
Dec 17, 2021
Dec 16, 2021
Dec 16, 2021
Dec 16, 2021
Dec 16, 2021
Dec 16, 2021
Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines).
Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request
Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.
Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.
Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient’s address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Medical Xpress in any form.

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we’ll never share your details to third parties.
More information Privacy policy
Daily science news on research developments and the latest scientific innovations
The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances
The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web
This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

source

You might also like

Surviving 2nd wave of corona
COVID-19

Surviving The 2nd Wave of Corona

‘This too shall pass away’ this famous Persian adage seems to be defeating us again and again in the case of COVID-19. Despite every effort

@voguewellness