JABS START FOR OVER-5s
THE rollout of Covid jabs for kids aged five to 11 begins this week.
The first 500,000 will go to children most clinically at risk or who live with someone who is vulnerable.
GPs have been compiling lists of those eligible and passing them on to NHS vaccine teams to make bookings at 850 surgeries or hospital hubs.
Children will get two 10 microgram of the Pfizer vaccine – a third of the adult dose – eight weeks apart.
Dr June Raine, head of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulations Agency, said: “Parents and carers can be reassured that no new vaccine would have been approved unless standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met.”
Deputy head of the NHS vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani added: “It is important our youngest and most at-risk get protected. We are asking parents not to delay.”
Among the first young children to get it yesterday was Xavier Aquilina, from Thames Ditton, Surrey.
Xavier, 11, who has benign rolandic epilepsy, said: “It is exciting to be able to be less vulnerable.”
One in 20 schoolchildren are now off sick or isolating, with cases rising in younger age groups.
Any child who has tested positive will not be able to get jabbed until four weeks after they are clear.
nigel.nelson@sundaymirror.co.uk