Parental consent will be needed before teens can receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Health care workers will be required to seek parental consent before vaccinating teenagers. This is according to a new directive from the Ministry of Health, days after the government cleared children between the ages of 15 and 18 to receive Covid-19 vaccination.
@DrMercyHealth ~ We now have enough vaccines to cater for our people. And now in accordance with the WHO guidelines we have lowered the age of those to be vaccinated to 15 years and above. pic.twitter.com/lwT6pvSShg
— Ministry of Health (@MOH_Kenya) November 25, 2021
Speaking to the Standard newspaper, Acting Health Director Patrick Amoth said that the teenagers will receive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine following advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to Dr Willis Akhwale, the COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce chairman, vaccination of teenagers will be a huge boost in the effort to attain herd immunity.
“We cannot attain herd immunity without vaccinating children because adults are only half the population.”
Amoth further stated that the ministry had begun with those aged 15 years and above but would progressively move to lower ages in the near future. Kenya becomes the latest country in Africa to adopt vaccination of people under 18 years after South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Uganda.
Featured Image by www.the-star.co.ke
