Vaccination against COVID-19 for children from 12 to under 18 years old: Ensuring safety, building trust

– After more than two months of COVID-19 vaccination for children from 12 to under 18 years old, Lang Son province has initially completed the set targets and progress with 93.4% of children receiving the second dose with the safety before, during and after their vaccination. Thereby, it increases herb immunity, building trust for parents and students.

From the beginning of November 2021, Lang Son started to launch a campaign to vaccinate against COVID-19 for children aged 15 to under 18 years old and from November 21, 2021, it started the vaccination for children from 12 to 14 years old. To ensure the vaccination safety for children, the Department of Health has coordinated with the Department of Education and Training, People’s Committees of districts and city to review and count the number of children in the age groups under their management at educational institutions and in the community for vaccination.

Ms. Phan My Hanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training said: “From the middle of October 2021, the department has issued a plan to request the Divion of Education and Training of districts, city and affiliated units to review and make a list of students in secondary schools (grades 6 to 9) in the area. At the same time, the department also requests schools to promote propaganda to parents, relatives of students and student about vaccination, creating consensus and coordination in screening, registration for vaccination and post-vaccination monitoring.”

Provincial Center for Disease Control organizes COVID-19 vaccination for children from 12 to 17 years old in Lang Son city.

Accordingly, 100% of students registered to participate in the vaccination under the consent of their parents, through the signing of a confirmation paper of COVID-19 vaccination. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh, a parent of a student of class 9A5, Hoang Van Thu Secondary School, Lang Son city said: “My child has received the second dose from December 2021. Before, during and after the vaccination, the school and medical staff closely cooperate with parents to monitor the children. Students injected with 2 vaccinations help us feel more secure when they go to school or in daily activities during the current complicated pandemic conditions.”

The Department of Health also held an online conference with districts, district and commune health units to agree on plans and solutions to ensure vaccination safety. Specifically, they agreed on dividing vaccination time, vaccination by class; wearing masks, keeping a distance; flexibly organizing vaccination locations at the Provincial Centers for Disease Control, district health centers, health stations of communes, wards, townships or commune groups…

Along with that, the medical staff are responsible and active in implementing COVID-19 vaccination for children. Doctor Chu Dinh Que, Director of Cao Loc District Health Center said: “Vaccination for children has more psychological and health sensitive factors than that for adults. Therefore, in addition to the staff of the health stations in the area of schools, we have sent over 20 doctors and nurses of the center to assist the vaccination sites in screening and handling post-vaccination situations. Particularly, vaccination staffs are carefully trained in professional instructions, especially the preservation of vaccines, pre-vaccination screening are strictly implemented. Up to now, the whole district has more than 7,000 children from 12 to under 18 years old who received 2 vaccinations, reaching nearly 100%, there were no cases of post-vaccination reactions.”

Thanks to the careful preparation of human and material resources, with the participation of many forces, so far, Lang Son has provided 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccination with safety for nearly 62,000 students from 12 to under 18 years old, reaching the rate of 93.4% (up to January 6, 2022, the rate of 2 vaccinations for children from 12 to under 18 years old nationwide reached 59.9%).

It is worth mentioning that all children who receive 2 doses of COVID-19 vaccine are safe, minimizing complications after vaccination. Out of more than 126,000 children aged 12 to under 18 years old who were vaccinated against COVID-19, only 72 had a normal reaction after being vaccinated. Up to now, there have been no cases of serious reactions after vaccination requiring emergency care.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, Deputy Director of the Department of Health, said: “After more than 2 months of vaccination for children against COVID-19, the health sector has initially completed the plan, ensuring safety before, during and after vaccination. Currently, there are still more than 600 children between the ages of 12 and under 18 who have to postpone vaccination for many reasons, therefore, we still continue to provide vaccination for them. At the same time, we continue to coordinate with the Department of Education and Training to strengthen propaganda and encourage parents and students to urgently complete the 2-dose vaccination according to regulations and strictly implement safety measures before, during and after vaccination.

It can be said that the above results create a premise for Lang Son to complete vaccination for children between the ages of 12 and under 18 and to vaccinate children from 5 to 11 years old as soon as the Ministry of Health directs. Consequently, it helps to expand the coverage of vaccines, increasing herd immunity, successfully contributing to the principle of “5K + vaccine”, gradually controlling and preventing the pandemic, creating trust for the parents, ensuring the safety of students coming to school in the new normal.

According to information from the Department of Health, on January 6, 2022, the Department of Health sent an official letter to the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on the registration of COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 years old. Accordingly, the province has registered vaccinations for over 95 thousand children in this age group.