SIBU: Individuals aged 12 to 17 should be given the Covid-19 vaccine injection, said Dr Annuar Rapaee.
The Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (SDDMC) Coordinator stated during his Sibu district daily Covid-19 case update via his social media site on Saturday that he agreed that the group should be vaccinated.
Dr Annuar, who is also the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, believes the group should be vaccinated based on the current pandemic situation in the country.
“The government should consider inoculating these groups with the vaccine. Although there are side effects reported, it is minimal or very less.
“In our efforts to establish herd immunity with a large percentage, I think it is better that this Covid-19 vaccine is given as much as possible to the public,” he stressed, adding the conditions for vaccination were not only limited to those aged 18 and above.
“We need to have more than the minimum requirements. I think we need to achieve at least almost 90 percent herd immunity. To achieve that, there is no other way but to include individuals aged 12 to 17,” explained the Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology Research.
However, he said, the government currently does not provide vaccinations to those in that age range because there are side effects of the Pfizer vaccine reported pertaining to this group.
The Nangka assemblyman revealed that, according to a study there were reports of side effects of myocarditis or heart inflammation, as many as 40 cases per one million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 mRNA vaccine were given to men aged 12 to 29 years.
