Hungary will begin vaccinating children aged five to 11 for COVID-19 after Dec. 20, announced Minister of Human Capacities Miklós Kásler in a video on his Facebook page on Sunday.
The announcement comes just days after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave its approval for the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for this age group.
“In children from 5 to 11 years of age, the dose of Comirnaty will be lower than that used in people aged 12 and above (10 µg compared with 30 µg). As in the older age group, it is given as two injections in the muscles of the upper arm, three weeks apart,” the EMA announced.
It added that based on a study of 2,000 children, the vaccine only had “mild or moderate” side effects that improve within a few days of vaccination.
Hungary began the vaccination of the 16–17 age group in May and by now, 56 percent of the age group are now vaccinated.
For all minors, parental consent is required for the vaccination.
According to the latest statistics, the vaccination rate in Hungary stands at 60.5 percent, slightly below the European Union’s 66.9 percent average but but significantly above that in Romania (38.2 percent), Slovakia (42.9) and Poland (55).
