Until then, only children 5 years and older could be vaccinated against Covid-19. The High Health Authority (HAS) recommends the opening of vaccination for children from 6 months to 4 years who may present severe forms of Covid-19, the organization indicates in a press release published this Monday.
After Pfizer obtained from the European Medicines Agency an extension of the indication of its vaccine to children under 5 years of age, the High Health Authority recommends opening primary vaccination for especially vulnerable children from 6 months of age. The vaccine “must be administered according to a three-dose vaccination schedule, with a first interval of 3 weeks, then a second interval of at least 8 weeks,” specifies the HAS.
On October 19, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) “recommended to include the use in children from 6 months to 4 years of Comirnaty”, from Pfizer, and “the use in children from 6 months to 5 years of Spikevax”, from Moderna, the European regulator said in a statement.
Children with comorbidities in question
To issue this opinion, the HAS relies on the latest data on the Covid-19 epidemic in France. According to Public Health France, children under 1 year of age account for 70% of hospitalizations for children aged 0 to 17 affected by the disease and 84% of intensive care admissions. HAS estimates that Pfizer’s laboratory vaccine is 80.3% effective against symptomatic cases of Covid-19 for children 6 months to 4 years.
Therefore, HAS recommends vaccination of children with comorbidities such as congenital heart disease, chronic liver disease, chronic cardiac and respiratory disease, neurological disease, primary or drug-induced immunodeficiency, obesity, diabetes, blood malignancies, sickle cell disease, and trisomy 21. Children living in the environment of immunocompromised people.
Source: BFM TV
