Children of 5-12 age bracket eligible for COVID jabs

Islamabad : The National Institute of Health (NIH) on Sunday announced that children aged 5-12 years could receive free coronavirus vaccine jabs from any vaccination centre in the country.

A countrywide COVID-19 vaccination drive was launched in February 2021, though the authorities limited the campaign to frontline health workers and elderly citizens since they were more vulnerable to respiratory disease.

The government decided to extend the campaign to all adult citizens within a few months after receiving the continued supply of various COVID-19 vaccines and scrambled to protect a much larger segment of the population. “Children aged 5-12 are now eligible for Coronavirus Vaccination,” said a graphic shared by the NIH on Twitter.

“It is free and available at all vaccination centres.” The institute urged people to get their children two vaccine doses and that the second vaccine shot should be taken between 21 and 56 days.

The country reported a COVID-19 positivity ratio of 0.61 per cent after holding 14,663 tests in the last 24 hours. A man was killed by the disease during the same period, while 89 people were in critical care after contracting COVID-19. The first coronavirus case was reported in the country in February 2020. The authorities later tried to stem the spread of the disease by launching a large-scale vaccination campaign and enforcing smart lockdowns.