At-risk children get green light for vaccines

AT-RISK children as young as six months will soon be offered a Covid jab after the nation’s expert vaccine advisory body gave the Moderna vaccine the green light.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation on Wednesday signed off on the vaccine for the approximately 70,000 young children at a higher risk of developing severe illness from Covid-19. At this stage, the vaccine will only be recommended to those in the age group who are severely immunocompromised, live with disability, or have complex health conditions.

Health Minister Mark Butler said there were no plans to expand the role out to all under-fives due to the “low likelihood of severe illness”.

Some 250,000 of the underfive Moderna vaccine were due to arrive in Australia on Wednesday night, with another half a million to arrive in September.

But parents wanting to book their young children in will have to wait until next month as the government works through the “logistic arrangements” of the rollout.

“I want to stress to families that there are not arrangements in place right now to book a vaccination,” Mr Butler said. “Information will be distributed over the course of the next couple of weeks about the way in which those booking arrangements can be made.”

ATAGI recommended the vaccine to be administered in two doses eight weeks apart.

“Australia will be one of the first countries to roll out a vaccination program for children under five,” Mr Butler said.

Australia’s medical regulator is evaluating the Pfizer vaccine for under-fives.