Keheliya gives nod to GMOA proposal to inoculate children between 12 and 18 with Pfizer vaccine

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella had yesterday agreed to the GMOA proposal that children between the ages 12 and 18 should be vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, Dr. Senal Fernando, Secretary of the GMOA said.

Those between the ages of 18 and 30 could be vaccinated with Sinopharm or another vaccine, he said.

The GMOA also presented several studies on inoculating those between ages of 12 and 18 to the Health Minister during the meeting, Dr. Fernando said.

“We are to get four million doses of Pfizer-BioNtech. We can use this to fully vaccinate those between 12 and 18. We must appoint a technical committee to handle this. We also asked the Director General of the Health Services to stop using Pfizer-BioNtech to vaccinate those between the ages of 18 and 30 and to channel all the vaccines to inoculate those between 12 and 18,” he said.

Children should be vaccinated using MOH offices and children’s wards at various government hospitals that have trained staff on vaccinating children, Dr. Fernando said.

“We can reduce the number of deaths of children, reduce new cases and reopen schools that have been closed down for 18 months. When children are vaccinated, they can be sent to schools without fear and given that academic and non-academic staff too have been vaccinated, schools can start functioning,” he said.