PUTRAJAYA: Children aged five to 11 will be offered the CoronaVac vaccine produced by Sinovac, if parents object to them receiving the Comirnaty vaccine due to growing concerns over mRNA vaccines.

Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said that from March 7 (tomorrow), the Ministry of Health (MOH) would start offering the (non-mRNA, protein-based) CoronaVac vaccine for free but only at selected vaccination centres (PPV).

He said parents were now given the option to let their children receive the CoronaVac vaccine if they did not agree to the Comirnaty vaccine (produced by Pfizer-BioNTech) which is a mRNA-based vaccine.

He added that parents could seek further clarification on queries from health staff on duty at the PPV.

"The CoronaVac vaccine can only be given to children who have reached the age of five. To obtain complete vaccination status, two doses of CoronaVac vaccine with an interval of four weeks must be given to children aged five to 11," he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Azmi said parents could check the operating hours and list of PPVs that offer CoronaVac on a walk-in basis on the MOH and PHCorp websites announced earlier.

In addition, parents who register their children in the MySejahtera application will receive a link to book vaccination appointments.

Dr Noor Azmi said the CoronaVac vaccines were being offered for free at the selected PPVs, which are operated by the MOH and PHCorp under the National Children's COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PICKids).

He said apart from PICKids, private clinics and hospitals also offered CoronaVac to children aged five to 11 for a fee.

On March 3, the government approved the use of CoronaVac vaccine for children aged five to 11, making it the second vaccine approved for the group.

He said the children's Comirnaty vaccine was approved on Jan 6 to ensure optimal protection against COVID-19 infection among children aged five to 11.

It is a vaccine that is being given priority in PICKids, including for children aged between five and 11 who are at high risk and have comorbidities such as individuals with low immunity or immunocompromised, chronic lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and others.

Noor Azmi said that based on COVIDNOW data until yesterday, COVID-19 infection among children under 12 years old showed a significant increase among 123,053 people were confirmed positive for the virus since January.

He said there were also cases that required hospital treatment and some to be treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

-- BERNAMA