The Health Ministry rolled out the second dose of COVID vaccine for children aged between 12 and 17 in Thimphu Thromde from Monday. The children are getting the Moderna vaccine.
More than 10,000 children in this age group will be vaccinated in the next two days in Thimphu Thromde. They received the Moderna vaccine as the first dose as well.
“Children in Thimphuthromde are our study area because we have committed with the Moderna Company that we will also support them in generating some data. So we have targeted only school children in Thimphu. We couldn’t vaccinate children in other places due to logistics issues,” said Dr Sonam Wangchuk, a member of the NI-TAG.
Last week the health ministry announced that vaccination will begin on Tuesday across the country. But now it might begin by the end of this week or beginning next week.
Meanwhile, the children in other districts will receive the Pfizer vaccine. The country bought nearly 200,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine recently.
Children in thirteen districts will receive the second dose while children in the remaining seven districts will receive the first dose. The seven districts are Haa, Lhuentse, Bumthang, Punakha, Wangdue Phodrang, Gasa and Trongsa.
There are about 75,000 children in this age group in the country and only about 16,000 have not received the first dose.
Choni Dema
Edited by Tandin Phuntsho
