Covid vaccine programme for children aged between six months and four to begin in Ireland

A Covid-19 vaccination programme for children aged between six months and four years old will begin next week.

The HSE said that the vaccines for young children will be available from Monday.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) has recommended vaccination for children aged six months to four years who have underlying health conditions which place them at higher risk of contracting Covid.

NIAC has also recommended that vaccination should be offered to all others in this age group to protect them and to provide benefit in reducing household transmission to those immunocompromised or too young for vaccination.

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Dr Aparna Keegan, specialist in public health medicine, HSE National Immunisation Office (NIO) said: “We are encouraging parents to familiarise themselves with HSE advice on the children’s Covid-19 vaccine with information available at www.hse.ie.

“We know from listening to parents they have questions about getting the Covid-19 vaccine for their children.

“This is why we have provided information on our website to help parents make an informed decision.

“While serious illness from Covid-19 in this age group is rare, this vaccine offers further protection particularly for children who have health conditions that put them at high risk of severe Covid-19.”

Children in the age group will require three doses of the vaccine with an interval of three weeks between dose one and two and at least eight weeks between dose two and three.

It is also recommended that the Covid-19 vaccine is separated from the administration of other vaccines by 14 days.

Community vaccination centres across the country will commence the roll out of clinics from Monday onwards with many commencing clinics later in the week and over the following weekend.

At present the vaccination is only available through the community vaccination centres.

Some counties including Mayo and Donegal will commence clinics from the following week beginning March 2.

Appointments may be booked from Friday on www.hse.ie.

Young children will be offered a Comirnaty (Pfizer/BioNTech) vaccine.

The vaccine for these children is a smaller dose than the vaccine for children aged between five and 11.

A parent or legal guardian will need to give consent for their child to get their vaccine and will need go to the appointment in person.

If a child has had Covid and their first vaccine dose is due they can be vaccinated from four weeks after they first develop symptoms or test positive. However, for their vaccine to be most effective, it is recommended to wait six months

If a child has had Covid and their second or third vaccine dose is due they can be vaccinated from four weeks after they first develop symptoms or test positive.

In its recommendation, Niac says it is appropriate to recommend the vaccine to young children with underlying conditions due to the benefits it provides.

“The situation is more finely balanced in relation to healthy children, many of whom have already experienced Sars-CoV-2 infection,” it said.

More younger children have been hospitalised with Covid than older children, it points out, and many did not have an underlying condition. In addition, infection can lead to “rare but serious” long-term conditions such as long Covid, even after mild infection.

“Covid-19 vaccination can be ethically justified in the child’s own interests,” Niac concludes. “Even if individual children do not stand to benefit substantially from vaccination, it could be ethically justifiable to choose vaccination to mitigate the risk posed to family members and other close contacts who may be at increased risk of severe Covid-19.”

It is recommended that the Covid-19 vaccine is separated from the administration of other vaccines by 14 days.

Over 3,000 children have been hospitalised with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,075 of whom were aged between six months and four years. Since last September, there were just 90 hospitalisations in this age-group and no deaths.

Just 21 per cent of five to 11-year-olds have completed a primary vaccine course against Covid-19.

Additional reporting: PA