Covid-19 vaccines for children may take longer than expected and not before successful trials, according to senior consultants and doctors.
"Vaccinating the children in Oman will begin after the international reports approve the right vaccines for children and after we reach 70 per cent of the ongoing vaccination drive," said Dr Mahmoud bin Nasser al Rahbi, Senior Consultant of Emergency Medicine at Al Nahda Hospital.
"Currently, Pfizer is doing clinical trials in children to find out the correct and effective dose of vaccine in children in the age group of 6 months to 5 years, and 5 years to 11 years," said Dr Benny Panakkan, medical head of a private hospital in Muscat. "The resultant data is expected to be available between September and November so that we can expect authorisation for vaccination in these groups by the end of the year."
Getting children vaccinated has been a question asked by many a parent who got their shots and vaccinating children is seen as crucial step to end the pandemic.
"Any nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity as long as enough people in a given community have antibodies against the coronavirus and until children can get vaccinated," Dr Dilip Singhvi, an internal medicine specialist, said.
Many countries are administering Pfizer-BioNTech shots to children aged 12 years and above since May while Moderna's vaccine is expected to be authorised for children as young as 12 soon.
Reports suggest that Moderna, the US drugmaker, is expanding the size of its clinical trial testing its Covid-19 vaccine among kids aged 5 to 11 years to find the likelihood of side effects.
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