Vaccination of children against Covid-19 not in Latvia's national calendar yet

RIGA - Vaccination of children against Covid-19 is not yet being included in Latvia's national calendar, Dace Zavadska, chairperson of the State Immunization Council and head of the Family Vaccination Center at the Children's Clinical University Hospital, said in an interview with Diena daily. 

In Zavadska's words, the Covid-19 vaccines were originally meant for adults, especially seniors, and that at the beginning of the pandemic transmissions in children were very rare.

Now, the situation has changed - adolescents catch the virus more often because their desire to socialize is especially strong, which is why scientists have started to work on vaccines designed for this age group. 

"Physiologically, adolescents are closer to adults, and they also get sick more often, so researchers have turned their attention to this age group, although the youngest kids included in AstraZeneca's studies are five years old," Zavadska said, noting that the vaccination of children is becoming important because of several reasons, including the necessity to attain herd immunity and the opportunity for children to return to school.

In clinically serious situations, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 can already be administered to children with permission from a medical advisory panel, Zavadska said.