Iran on Wednesday began rolling out COVID-19 jabs for kids over the age of five as part of the second phase of a plan to immunize children against the pandemic.
“Vaccination of children over the age of nine was carried out in the first phase. Starting today, the over five age group will be inoculated,” Deputy Health Minister Kamal Heydari was quoted as saying by IRNA.
According to the official, children are to be administered two shots with the same dosage as adults. One homegrown vaccine, Pastu Covac, and the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine have been cleared for kids.
Heydari noted, “Children will be vaccinated with parental consent.”
Iran began vaccinating adolescents between the ages of 12 to 18 in early autumn to pave the way for school reopening across the country.
The National Coronavirus Headquarters extended vaccination to kids between five to 11 after the highly contagious Omicron variant, which mostly targets children, was detected in the capital Tehran in late December.
Following the vaccination of the 9-11 age group, the Health Ministry is now expecting parents to bring their 5-10 years old children to vaccination centers.
Iran has authorized anyone over the age of 18 to receive a third booster shot to build more immunity against Omicron and curb transmission rates.
So far, 20.5 million Iranians have been administered the booster dose.
“The number of people seeking third shots have doubled over the past week. We want the public to get the third shot as fast as possible,” Heydari said.
The relentless spread of the Omicron variant has sparked fear among Iranians as they stand in long lines to get the booster dose.
Daily COVID cases have tripled in the last two weeks and overnight mortalities returned to over 100 after sixty days of double-digit figures.