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Tegucigalpa, Jan 20 (EFE) .- The Honduran health authorities announced this Thursday that they will begin immunizing children between 5 and 11 years of age with the childhood vaccine against covid-19 starting next week.
“We are very happy because we are pleased to give the information that this inoculation process for children between 5 and 11 years of age will begin next week,” Honduran Health Minister Alba Consuelo Flores told reporters.
He added that children in that age range with some pathology will be the first to receive the pediatric vaccine against the coronavirus.
The idea is to have all children between the ages of 5 and 11 vaccinated in a short space of time so that they can return to the classroom, according to the Honduran authorities.
“We are going to send these protected minors, always with a strict plan with the care of biosecurity standards,” the official stressed.
Flores announced in November 2021 that Honduras will buy three million pediatric doses of the covid-19 vaccine to immunize 1,345,000 children between the ages of 5 and 11.
The continuation of vaccination against covid-19 is “one of the greatest challenges” that the new government will have, which will be headed by the leftist Xiomara Castro as of January 27, when he will be sworn in, the official said.
In early November, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer/BioNTech covid-19 vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years of age.
The Honduran Deputy Minister of Health, Fredy Guillén, told reporters that the first batch of pediatric vaccines with more than 100,000 doses will arrive in the Central American country on January 25.
Honduras, a country of 9.5 million inhabitants, has maintained a trend towards an increase in new cases and hospitalized by covid-19 for days.
The health authorities have reiterated their call to the population to get vaccinated against covid-19 to prevent hospitalization for serious complications derived from SARS-CoV-2.
(c) EFE Agency