Technical Chamber must indicate to the government the purchase of Coronavac for children aged 3 to 5 years

The technical chamber that advises the Ministry of Health will meet this Friday (15) and should recommend to the federal government the purchase of Coronavac for the vaccination against Covid-19 of children aged 3 to 5 years.

The emergency use of the vaccine in this age group was unanimously approved by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) this Wednesday (13), without restrictions.

Since then, the Ministry of Health has stated that it will evaluate the indication with the CTAI (Technical Chamber of Advice on Immunization), formed by specialists from civil society and representatives of municipal and state health departments.

Members heard by Sheet state, however, that the technical chamber had already recommended vaccinating children with any vaccine approved by Anvisa.

Therefore, the group should suggest that the vaccination of children aged 3 to 5 years with Coronavac be incorporated into the PNI (National Immunization Program) as soon as possible.

The vaccination schedule indicated by Anvisa for childhood vaccination is the same as for the rest of the population: same dosage and 28-day interval between the first and second dose.

The request to expand the age group in the immunizer package insert was under analysis since March 11, when the Butantan Institute made a new request to the regulatory agency.

After Anvisa’s decision, the Secretary of State for Health of São Paulo, Jean Gorinchteyn, told Sheet that Butantan will import the doses from China. According to him, from the order of vaccines by the Ministry of Health to the institute, the estimated delivery in Brazil is 45 days.
​
According to Gorinchteyn, the stock of Coronavac in São Paulo is very small and should be used for those who took the first dose of this vaccine and have not yet shown up to receive the second injection of the immunizer against Covid.

“Butantan now hopes that the immunizer will be incorporated into the National Immunization Program [PNI] of the Ministry of Health, according to the necessary demand and through contracting”, said the institute this Wednesday.

Currently, in Brazil, vaccination against the new coronavirus occurs from the age of 5. Coronavac had already been approved by Anvisa for use in children aged 6 years and over, but childhood vaccination has been preferably done with Pfizer.

Pfizer, until Anvisa’s decision this Wednesday, was the only vaccine released for 5-year-olds.

In the last month, hospitals have had an increase in hospitalizations of children under the age of 5 for Covid-19. Brazil has recorded an average of two daily deaths from the disease among younger children.

An analysis by Observa Infância, a project linked to the Institute for Communication and Scientific and Technological Information in Health (Icict/Fiocruz), showed that there were 1,439 deaths from coronavirus in this group in 2020 and 2021, with 48% of babies aged 29 days to 1 year incomplete.

Vaccination of children and adolescents is a sensitive issue in the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL), which has distorted data and discouraged childhood immunization.

The president even threatened to expose the names of Anvisa’s employees, when the use of Pfizer vaccines in children aged 5 to 11 years was approved on December 16 of last year.