Only 41% of children aged 5 to 11 have taken the COVID-19 vaccine

Less than half of children aged five to 11 eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have taken the jab, figures tabled in parliament show.

There are 32,493 children in that age group, Health Minister Chris Fearne said in reply to a parliamentary question by Nationalist MP Graziella Galea.

As of 7 February, 23,085 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were administered to children aged five to 11, of which 9,776 were second doses. This means that 13,309 children have received at least one dose of the vaccine, accounting for 41% of all eligible children in the age group.

The European Medicines Agency authorised the use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children back in November. The rollout for this cohort began in Malta on 14 December.

Children are administered two jabs three weeks apart at a third of the adult dose.