MOH recommends kids to be vaccinated before April 1

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has recommended that unvaccinated children immediately get their vaccination under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) before the country enters the transition to the endemic phase beginning April 1.

Deputy Health Minister, Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said this was to ensure that children aged five to 12 were protected from severe COVID-19 infection and complications.

He added that although there was a 160 per cent increase in the number of COVID-19 hospital admissions among children this year, there are still some parents out there who think that during the transition phase, children in that age group no longer needed to be vaccinated.

"Parents are urged to register their children as dependents in the MySejahtera application to get a vaccination appointment or walk-in to the designated vaccination centres (PPV).

"Choose to vaccinate your children because the benefits outweigh the risks of getting the side effects of the vaccine," he said in a statement today.

Noor Azmi said parents who bring their children to PPV on working days would be given a time slip as a proof that they had brought their children to be vaccinated.

As of yesterday, a total of 1,315,497 children aged five to 11 or 37.1 per cent of the child population in Malaysia have received the first dose of the vaccine under PICKids.

-- BERNAMA