Babies and toddlers who are clinically vulnerable are to be offered a vaccine, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised.
Eligible children aged six months to four years old would recieve two doses of the vaccine, with an interval of 8 to 12 weeks between doses. NHS England has confirmed it will begin offering vaccinations to those eligible in England from mid-June.
Parents should wait to be contacted before coming forward. The JCVI does not currently advise COVID-19 vaccination of children aged six months to four years who are not in a clinical risk group.
Although young children are generally at low risk of developing severe illness from COVID-19, infants and young children who have underlying medical conditions are over seven times more likely to be admitted to paediatric intensive care units. In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) first authorised use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children within the age range in December 2022.
Professor Wei Shen Lim, Chair of the JCVI’s COVID-19 Committee, said: "For the vast majority of infants and children, COVID-19 causes only mild symptoms, or sometimes no symptoms. However, for a small group of children with pre-existing health conditions it can lead to more serious illness and, for them, vaccination is the best way to increase their protection."
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay added: “Children are at very low risk of harm from Covid. However, there are a very small number of children with health conditions which make them particularly vulnerable, and for those children we want to give parents the choice as to whether they wish to vaccinate their at risk child or not.
“I have accepted advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on vaccinating children aged from 6 months to 4 years who are in a clinical risk group. It is a parental decision, and this advice is simply to enable parents of children with medical conditions to choose if they wish to have the protection.”
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