What you need to know about vaccinating your child against Covid-19 in Hong Kong

More children in Hong Kong are expected to get vaccinated against Covid-19, with a government advisory panel on Monday recommending lowering the minium age for recipients of the Chinese-produced Sinovac jab from 18 to three. Authorities were also urged to follow up on lowering the minimum age for the German-made BioNTech shot, which has been approved for use on children as young as five in various countries, including the United States and the United Arab Emirates. The Post looks at questions centred on coronavirus vaccination for children. Why do children need vaccination against Covid-19? Professor Lau Yu-lung, chairman of the Centre for Health Protection’s scientific committee on vaccine preventable diseases, said most children in Hong Kong infected with Covid-19 developed mild symptoms or none at all. But if general infections in the city surged, the probability of more serious cases in children would be higher if they were not vaccinated, Lau added. “When a place adopts the strategy of living with the virus, but children are not yet vaccinated, perhaps about one in every 1,000 to 2,000 of them will develop serious conditions and need to be sent to intensive care, or they may even die,” he warned, noting that multisystem inflammatory syndrome was one of the consequences for young Covid-19 patients. Hong Kong panel recommends Sinovac Covid-19 jab for children aged 3 and above Pointing to the US, Lau said more children had died because a wide age group among the young had not been vaccinated, while the country had chosen to live with the virus. Furthermore, according to the expert, as children tend to have close interactions with elderly family members, vaccinating the younger ones could also protect seniors whose vaccination rates remain low. Hong Kong’s inoculation rate for residents in their seventies is 44.2 per cent, while for those aged 80 or above, the mark is at 17.2 per cent. What is the youngest age for recipients of Covid-19 vaccines? It varies worldwide, depending on government approval. In Hong Kong, children aged 12 and above can get the BioNTech jab. The Sinovac shot is currently available for adults aged 18 or older, but the government’s advisory panel on Monday recommended that the vaccine could be used on children as young as three. Details of implementation are to be ironed out, with a source saying health authorities were considering arranging for teenagers aged 12 to 17 to be the first group of youngsters to get the Sinovac shot. Hong Kong could prioritise older children in Covid-19 jabs scheme extension Some countries have already lowered the minimum age for BioNTech shots among children. In the US, the vaccination drive has been drastically extended to children as young as five after the country’s Food and Drug Administration in late October authorised the emergency use of BioNTech for this group. An advisory committee under the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention also gave its recommendation on vaccinating children earlier this month. Mainland China has since June authorised the use of its Sinovac vaccine on children as young as three, with those aged 12 to 17 first getting the jabs, and the drive later extended to those from three to 11. A number of countries using the Sinopharm vaccine, another Chinese-made jab, including Bahrain and the UAE, have also allowed children as young as three to receive the jab. Both Sinovac and BioNTech are now studying the efficacy and safety of their vaccines on six-month-old babies. Preliminary data released by Sinovac earlier this month showed the jab was safe with no serious adverse reactions on this age group. How effective are the jabs on children, compared with adults? A BioNTech trial conducted among children aged five to 11 showed its vaccine was 90.7 per cent effective – similar to the rate of 91.3 per cent among adults, announced in April. In early-stage Sinovac trials done on children aged three to 17, more than 96 per cent of participants developed antibodies. Immune responses among children and teens were also higher than in adults assessed in previous studies. Sinovac is still studying its vaccine efficacy among children, with data expected from a large-scale trial covering 14,000 young recipients across countries such as South Africa, Chile, Malaysia and the Philippines. What are the side effects for children? Latest studies done overseas show that the two vaccines being used in Hong Kong are safe for children. For the BioNTech trial on young children, no serious side effects were recorded among some 3,100 participants recruited from the US, Finland, Poland and Spain. But commonly reported side effects included sore arms, fatigue and headaches. While myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – was found to occur more frequently among teen boys receiving the BioNTech vaccine, modelling done by the FDA showed that the benefits outweighed the risks among those aged five to 11. Preliminary safety data from the international trial being conducted by Sinovac also showed no adverse reactions. Similar to the BioNTech vaccine, participants who reported feeling unwell had “mild” and “moderate” conditions such as headaches or injection site pains.

What you need to know about vaccinating your child against Covid-19 in Hong Kong

City may extend jabs to younger group, with expert panel recommending Sinovac shot for those aged from three instead of the current 18 The minimum age differs worldwide according to government approval, but trials of two locally available jabs conducted so far indicate low risks

City may extend jabs to younger group, with expert panel recommending Sinovac shot for those aged from three instead of the current 18

The minimum age differs worldwide according to government approval, but trials of two locally available jabs conducted so far indicate low risks