The Ministry of Health has just issued official guidelines on vaccinating against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to below 12 who have been already infected with COVID-19.

Accordingly, children of those ages will delay vaccinations against COVID-19 for 3 months since they contract the disease. After this time, eligible children should get vaccinated if they are healthy enough.

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son has requested the Departments of Health in localities nationwide to coordinate with the Departments of Education and Training to review and make lists of school-aged children in the age group of 5 to under 12 in order to prepare for vaccination work.

According to Dr. Le Kien Ngai, Head of the Infection Prevention and Control Department under the Viet Nam National Children's Hospital, said, children in the age group of 5 to under 12 are almost completely recovered from their illness after three months of contracting COVID -19. At the same time, their natural immunity after infection was also reduced, so it is appropriate for them to get vaccinated.

Prof. Dr. Phan Trong Lan, the Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health, also said that according to the experience of other countries, all people who have been infected with COVID-19 are still vaccinated against COVID-19.

According to recent studys, people who have previously recovered from COVID-19 but still have got vaccinated have been found to have higher antibody responses than those who have previously recovered from COVID-19 but have not been vaccinated, thereby contributing to reducing the number of severe cases and deaths.

According to Prof. Dr. Phan Trong Lan, there are 11.8 million children of 5-12 years old across Viet Nam eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. An estimate of 8.2 million children has yet to contract COVID-19.

Therefore, the health sector will begin vaccinating children who have yet to contract COVID-19 first, and the vaccination rollout is expected to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

About 3.6 million of children who have recovered from COVID-19 will be vaccinated three months later.

Reporting by B.T - Translating by M.DUNG