The government has greenlit COVID-19 vaccination for certain teenagers, from mid-September.

News portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) cited a letter signed by Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, which said that all teenagers aged 16 and 17, without or without health conditions, as well as 12 to 15-year-olds with comorbidities, can get vaccinated.

"Its implementation depends on the supply of vaccines available," Noor Hisham was quoted saying in the letter, adding that the instructions in the circular would come into effect from September 15.

According to him further, the vaccinations will be administered at designated centres (PPVs), as well as through outreach programmes in schools.

Official announcement on the matter is expected to be made by the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF).

For patients with history of allergy, or immune-system related conditions, pre-vaccination assessments will be conducted before the jabs are administered.

Various quarters have previously urged the government to start vaccinating teenagers aged 12 to 17. This after reports that 82,341 children had been infected by the coronavirus since the pandemic broke until May 30 this year, with the majority of the cases happening this year.

Recent reports have also suggested that the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is the currently the dominant strain in the world, is making children gravely sicker.

There have been a total of 1.34 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and 11,691 deaths in the country from COVID-19 so far. Globally, the coronavirus has infected more than 206 million people and killed over 4.34 million.


Source: FMT
Photo source: Astro Awani