Japan approves Covid-19 vaccination of children between 5 and 11 years old

The Japanese Ministry of Health on Thursday approved the immunization against Covid-19 of children between 5 and 11 years old with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, lowering the minimum age of inoculation for the country’s national campaign.

With the measure, about 7 million children can start receiving their first doses in March. Until now, Japan has only authorized the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in adolescents aged 12 and over, and the approval below that age comes amid a debate among Japanese experts over the need to vaccinate young children, who are considered less likely to develop severe symptoms if they contract Covid-19.

From the decision of the Japanese ministry’s panel of experts, children will receive doses of the vaccine equivalent to one third of those applied to adults.

Japan has inoculated about 79% of its population with the two doses, while the booster, which started to be distributed last month to priority groups, has already been applied to 1.4% of Japanese.

The approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for children age 5 and up comes amid an increase in coronavirus infections in Japan, something that is attributed to the spread of the omicron variant and which has prompted local authorities to apply new restrictions in Tokyo and other major regions of the country. Today, Japan recorded about 46,200 cases of Covid-19, the third consecutive daily record.