Chile Starts Vaccination of Children Over 6 Years Old

On Monday, Chile’s health authorities started to administrate the Chinese CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine to children between 6 and 12 years of age, following the Health Institute (ISP) approval for this vaccine to be used in children over six years old.

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"About 12 percent of the coronavirus cases that our country has reported so far this year correspond to under-18-year-old citizens," the ISP Undersecretary Paula Daza stressed. She also informed that children with up to two chronic non-communicable diseases would the first ones to receive the CoronaVac vaccine since they have a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.

From Sept. 26, healthy children could receive their first dose at schools. Given that vaccination is voluntary, only children having a written consent from their parents will be vaccinated.

In June, Chile approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for children over 12 years old. Since then, nearly 700,000 kids have already received at least one dose of this vaccine. Although the ISP has not approved vaccination for children under six years old yet, Daza assured that family vaccination would protect this population group since it reduces the chances of developing the disease symptoms and transmitting the virus at home.

"Getting vaccinated is a responsible and supportive act," she pointed out. As of Sept. 10, 13,770,126 citizens had received one dose of CoronaVac or Pfizer vaccine, and 73,4 percent of the population had been fully immunized against the coronavirus.

Since the highest peak reached in June, the pandemic has been receding for weeks in Chile. Currently, the contagion rate remains below 1 percent and there are only half a thousand patients admitted to intensive care.

Despite this, President Sebastian Piñera’s administration keeps on the curfew established at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Therefore, citizens cannot leave their homes from 00:00 to 05:00, and the country's borders remain closed for tourists.