COVID: 270,000 children below 12 infected in July-Dec last year

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 270,000 children under the age of 12 were infected with COVID-19 between July and December last year, said Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

He said of the total, 63 children had succumbed to COVID-19 and based on a study at 14 government hospitals nationwide, 174 Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MISC) cases had been detected over the same period.

"Fifty-six per cent or 100 cases of the MISC cases involved those aged between five and 12 with four per cent fatality," he said while appearing as a guest on Bernama TV's 'The Nation' programme today.

Hence, Dr Noor Azmi, who is also the chairman of the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force for Children (CITF-C) said it was important for children to be vaccinated as they are at risk of complications due to COVID-19 namely the MISC which lead to inflammation and complication to various organs and long COVID-19.

The National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Kids (PICKids) to protect children from COVID-19 infection kicked off on Feb 3, targeting 3.6 million children aged five to 11.

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

As of yesterday, a total of 206,748 or 5.8 per cent of children aged five to 11 in the country have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

-- BERNAMA