The governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB), said this Friday morning (17), that the vaccination of children against Covid-19 aged between 5 and 11 years will start in the state as soon as possible.
The declaration was given during the inauguration of the Vila Sônia station of the 4-yellow Metro line.
Doria even said that the doses would begin to be applied as early as next week, but gave up promising a date when asked about the deadline for delivery of the immunizing agent from Pfizer, the only one authorized by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) to be used in kids.
“There will be 8 million children. We will start vaccinating as soon as possible,” said Doria.
The governor also stated that the State Department of Health is directly negotiating the purchase of doses with Pfizer, in order to speed up the arrival of the doses. “Health has cash to buy the vaccine,” he said.
Doria’s announcement contrasts with the attitude of president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), who is against the vaccination of children and said this Thursday (16) that he will disclose the name of the technicians from Anvisa who approved the measure.
Anvisa authorized this Thursday (16) the use of Pfizer’s vaccine to immunize children from five years against Covid-19. With this, the product insert in Brazil will indicate this new age group.
Until then, the manufacturer’s model was allowed to be used in the country only by people over 12 years of age.
The decision on the start of the national vaccination campaign for children rests with the Ministry of Health. This should not happen immediately because the folder has not yet requested the purchase of specific doses for the age group. The forecast is to immunize 70 million children. Ministry managers estimate that doses will start arriving next month.
Pfizer’s vaccines applied to the 5 to 11 year age group and the older ones have the same active ingredient, but there are differences in composition. The dose intended for children is equivalent to one third of that indicated for the group aged 12 and over.
The bottle of the youngest immunizing agent has an orange coloration just to differentiate the product.
The agency suggests, among other points, that the vaccination of children be started after the complete training of health teams and that it take place in specific places, different from adults.
The room must also be exclusive for the application of the Covid vaccine, and should not be used for the application of other vaccines, even pediatric ones.
As a precaution, Anvisa also advised that the Pfizer vaccine should not be administered concomitantly with others, even if on the children’s calendar.
Another orientation of the agency is not to use the drive-thru model in immunizing this public and that children remain at the vaccination sites for approximately 20 minutes after being immunized to monitor any adverse reaction.
So far, only Pfizer has been released by Anvisa. But the agency has already received a new request from the Butantan Institute so that Coronavac can be used in children and teenagers from 3 to 17 years old. The evaluation period is up to 30 days. The resolution of Anvisa provides that children receive two doses of 10 micrograms in an interval of 21 days and should be published in the extra edition of the Diário Oficial da União on Thursday.
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