All children above 12 yo to be jabbed with Pfizer vaccine from November 14

KATHMANDU: The government has decided to vaccinate all the children above 12 years of age with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine from November 14.

GAVI, a global alliance for vaccines and immunisations, is planning to bring 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines on Monday. The vaccine needs to be stored in minus 70 degrees Celsius.

The vaccines will be administered from 12 hospitals in the country.

According to the Family Welfare Division, patients above 12 years of age with chronic diseases will be given high priority.

Sagar Dahal, Chief at the Child Health and Vaccination Branch under the Family Welfare Division, said that people suffering from diseases like cancer, heart, diabetes, asthma and HIV among others will be on the first priority list.

Pfizer BioNTech, an American vaccine manufacturing company, has said that the booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine is over 95 percent effective against infection from COVID-19.

“The clinical phase three trial with “10,000 participants 16 years of age and older” showed “a relative vaccine efficacy of 95.6 percent against disease during a period when Delta was the prevalent strain”, the company said in a statement.