Pfizer still the preferred vaccine for kids, Khairy says as Sinovac to roll out at some jab centres

The Sinovac vaccine for children will be made available at a limited number of vaccination centres, following the green light given by the Drug Control Authority for conditional registration approval yesterday.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin however said that the Pfizer jab would remain the preferred vaccine for use under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids).

“Per advice from our Covid-19 Technical Working Group, Pfizer will still be the preferred vaccine for #PICKids if your child has no history of allergies.

“CITF-C will, however, make Sinovac available at limited PPVs for informed parental choice,” he said in a Twitter post today.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced yesterday that the Sinovac vaccine will be allowed for use in addition to the Pfizer jab for children aged five to 11.

The vaccine was previously approved for conditional use for those aged 12 and above.

A total of 952,411 children or 26.8% of those aged five to 11 had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine under PICKids as of yesterday.

Khairy said on Feb 17 that there had been an increase in the number of paediatric Covid-19 cases including hospital admissions, with a 160% rise in the number of cases among children below 12 years old this year due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali meanwhile said on Feb 25 that many parents were adopting a wait-and-see attitude, with Sabah, Terengganu and Kelantan recording a child vaccination rate of less than 10% at the time.