KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 1,055 schools have been identified to be used as vaccination centres (PPV) for the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) which will be operational by Monday (Feb 14).

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said, however, the number of school PPVs is expected to increase from time to time.

"All these schools will be vaccination centres for students at the school and from nearby schools," he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Azmi, who is also the Chairman of the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force for Children (CITF-C), said for vaccination in schools, a list of eligible children would be provided by the school and would be implemented by the school health team or private medical practitioners.

He also reminded parents or guardians to register their dependents through the MySejahtera account to get a vaccination appointment and digital vaccination certificate while those who do not have the facility, the date and location of the appointment will be informed by the school management.

He said the Ministry of Education (MOE) had also agreed to help set up group appointments for vaccination at schools or vaccination centres that had been identified by the District Health Office and the District Education Office to ensure the smooth implementation of the vaccination exercise.

As a measure to avoid congestion at the PPV, Dr Noor Azmi said only one of the parents or guardians was allowed to accompany the child, adding that parents should ensure that the child to be vaccinated gets adequate rest and take breakfast and drink enough water before going for vaccination.

"Parents need to monitor children so that they do not do strenuous activities for seven days after receiving the vaccine," he said.

PICKids was started on Feb 3, targeting 3.6 million children aged five to under 11 to protect children from COVID-19 infection.

It also aims to ensure that the infection risk in schools can be contained thus preventing clusters among school children.

As of yesterday, a total of 79,393 or 2.2 per cent of children from the ages of five to 11 in the country have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

-- BERNAMA