The health ministry will roll out the second dose of COVID vaccination for children between 12 and 17 years from 14th till 17th September. After the mass vaccination, Bhutan would have vaccinated more than 80 per cent of its population. Meaning, at the end of the vaccination campaign, Bhutan will achieve herd immunity.
Earlier, the government had said children of this age group would be given the second dose of the COVID vaccine in the first week of October. However, the date has been rescheduled due to the availability of vaccine.
According to Dr Sonam Wangchuk from the National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group (NI-TAG), the vaccination campaign will be conducted in the respective schools. “Children who have received Moderna as the first dose will be getting Pfizer as the second dose and those who received Pfizer as the first dose will receive the same vaccine. For those who haven’t received the vaccine, we are going to roll out the first dose at the same time,” said the doctor.
He also told BBS that since the two vaccines are the messenger RNA vaccines, children and parents should not worry about the interchange of the jabs. Moreover, he said for better results and immunity, the interchange of vaccines has been recommended by experts.
During the first vaccination campaign for children in this age group from 29th July to 5th August this year, over 59 thousand children in 13 high-risk districts received their first dose of vaccine.
While some 4600 children of Phuentshogling and Samtse received the Pfizer, children of 11 other districts were given the Moderna vaccine.
After the second dose vaccination campaign for children, the country would be left with only about 16 thousand children to be fully vaccinated. There are about 75 thousand children of this age group in the country.
Bhutan purchased nearly 200 thousand doses of Pfizer just recently, the largest consignment of the vaccine so far.
Kinzang Lhadon
Edited by Chayku
