BEIJING: Some local governments in China are planning to administer COVID-19 vaccines to teenagers as the country pushes ahead with its mass immunization drive, with over 1.4 billion doses already administered.
The health commission in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region said on Tuesday that it will focus on vaccinating those aged 12 to 17 and the elderly in the second half of this year.
“All people aged 12 and above who do not have contraindications to COVID-19 vaccines should get vaccines,” it said in a notice.
The region started to give vaccines to those aged 15 to 17 this month, and will start inoculating those aged 12 to 14 next month. It aims to fully immunize those aged 12 to 17 by the end of October, the commission said.
Guangxi, like the rest of China, has been focusing on vaccinating adults aged 18 to 59 since December. By Tuesday morning, it had delivered over 40.4 million doses, and over 17 million people, or about 33 percent of its population, were fully vaccinated.While hailing its vaccination campaign’s initial success, the commission said giving shots to people aged below 18 the majority being students ”is a significant part” of building herd immunity, which requires fully vaccinating about 80 percent of the population.
The commission added that parents or guardians of minors ready to receive doses should accompany them to vaccination sites and sign informed consent forms.
Also on Tuesday, the health authority in Jingzhou, Hubei province, said that it will target people aged 12 to 17 and the elderly next month in the next step in its vaccination drive.
It also urged unvaccinated residents aged 18 to 59 to finish receiving doses by the end of this month. On Wednesday, the city of Suzhou in Anhui province released a similar vaccination plan targeting people aged 12 to 17. It aims to complete inoculating its eligible population by the end of September.
Several cities in the provinces of Fujian and Hebei also announced this week that they would begin to roll out vaccines to young students. More than 1.41 billion doses of vaccines had been administered nationwide by Wednesday, according to data released by the National Health Commission on Thursday. Regions in the lead include Beijing, which has fully vaccinated nearly 90 percent of people aged 18 or above, as well as the southernmost province of Hainan, which has vaccinated more than 88 percent of its target population.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
