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Katalin Havasi, president of the Association of Pediatricians, believes that a vaccination rate of over 90 percent is necessary for children between the ages of 12 and 15, as more and more children have recently been infected with the delta variant and some even require hospitalization. Jens Spahn, Germany’s Federal Minister of Health, announced on his social media page that the covid vaccine will be delivered a week earlier for 5-11-year-old children across the EU. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced last Friday that the country has purchased two million doses of this vaccine.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute, in two separate articles which can be read here and here.
According to the president, Katalin Havasi, there are many more infected children than during the earlier waves, and there are more children who need hospitalization.
The delta variant also causes more symptoms in children than the earlier variants. There has been reported abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting, fever, weakness, chills, and cough. Hospital treatment is necessary for weakness, abdominal pain, difficulty eating, diarrhea, or pneumonia. Fortunately, it is rare that children need to be treated with a ventilator.
According to the official data, the vaccination rate in Hungary is 38 percent among children between 12 and 15 years old, but according to the president, because of the rapid spread of the virus, a rate of over 90 percent would be desirable. She, therefore, draws the attention of parents to the fact that one should be afraid of the virus, not of the vaccination.
A total of up to 13 million doses of the pediatric vaccine are at hand for the EU in December. Last week, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light for approval of BioNTech/Pfizer’s corona vaccine for children five years and older. It is the first corona vaccine approved in the EU for children under the age of twelve.
Good news: we were able to arrange for the vaccine for 5-11-year-old children to be delivered one week earlier throughout the EU. The manufacturer has assured us of this,”
wrote Jens Spahn, German Federal Minister of Health, on his social media page Wednesday.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the distribution of Pfizer/BioNTech’s pediatric vaccine as recently as November 25. One day later, on Friday, November 26, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that the vaccine for children would also be available in Hungary.
We have procured two million vaccines. The first shipment will arrive around December 20, of 130,000 doses, and there will be a steady supply of vaccines thereafter.”
Children the age of five and older are to receive only one-third of the adult dose of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine and two doses three weeks apart.
On Wednesday, it became known that the European Union had brought forward the delivery of the vaccine for children between 5 and 12 years old by one week so that their vaccination can begin earlier.
In early November, Costa Rica announced that it will be the first country in the world to introduce compulsory vaccination of children under 12. In Israel, the vaccination of children with Pfizer’s vaccine began on November 22.
Sources: Infostart, Portfolio, Al Jazeera English, 24.hu, Index
Featured image via Attila Balázs/MTI
