`I have approved a proposal from health officials to expand the vaccination program to the 12-15 year old population, to protect children from Covid-19, limit the risk of infection in schools and help
The UK is currently the largest epidemic area in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, recording 7,256,559 cases of infection and 134,261 deaths due to nCoV, an increase of 30,825 and 61 cases respectively in the past 24 hours.
Despite the successful vaccination campaign, the number of new infections every day in the country remains high due to the Delta strain.
Medical staff prepare a dose of Covid-19 vaccine in Blackburn, England, in May. Photo: Reuters.
Although they rarely get seriously ill, teenagers can still be infected with the virus and pass it on to their grandparents and parents, increasing the risk of spreading the epidemic in the community, especially with the Delta variant.
The British government in July said children from 12 years old could only be vaccinated if they had an underlying medical condition or lived with a family member vulnerable to Covid-19.
The panel recommends that healthy 16-17 year olds be promptly vaccinated with at least one dose as a preventative approach.
The Covid-19 situation in the world is still complicated, with infections and deaths increasing by 396,543 and 6,449 respectively in the past 24 hours.
Israel, a country with a population of 5 million people, currently records 352,447 infections and 5,092 deaths.
A survey of nearly 14,000 children and adolescents aged 3-18 years old by the Israeli Ministry of Health published on September 13 showed that 11.2% of respondents still had persistent symptoms of Covid-19 after treatment.
To date, there is not much data on the effects of nCoV on children and adolescents, who are less at risk of serious complications than adults.
Israel, which mainly uses the Covid-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer, has so far vaccinated about 2.8 million people with the third dose after launching this campaign in August. Health officials are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccine
In Vietnam, the Ministry of Health said it is actively looking for sources of Covid-19 vaccine.
Singapore, yesterday recorded 607 new infections, the highest increase in the past year, bringing the total number of infected people to 71,687, of which 58 people died.
The information is given in the context that the country is gradually opening up after more than 80% of the population has been fully vaccinated and is increasing testing to early detect infections in the community.
The Singapore Anti-Covid-19 Working Committee (MTF) is managing the current wave of infections that began on August 23, in which the country first recorded an exponential increase in the number of new infections in the community on Friday.
`Even though our vaccination rate has surpassed many other countries and is among the countries with the highest vaccine coverage in the world, we still need to ensure that the number of new infections does not spike, causing the number of serious illnesses.`
He said the next 2-4 weeks are a very important period for Singapore because officials want to find out whether the patient experiences severe symptoms or not.
Hannah