NIBONG TEBAL: Only one serious case of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) has been reported among Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) vaccine recipients as of Sunday.
During the same period, 57 non-serious AEFI cases were reported.
As of yesterday, 564,220 children or 15.9 per cent have been vaccinated under PICKids which kicked off on Feb 3.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said the one serious AEFI case involved a child with asthma exacerbation.
Without going into specific details, he said the child already had asthma.
"After being administered with the Covid-19 vaccine, the child had an asthma attack. The child was treated at the hospital and discharged upon recovery. That is the one serious case of AEFI reported.
"As for the 57 non-serious AEFI cases reported through the MySejahtera app, they involved children who reported cases of fever and swelling among others. The effects were only for a day or two and categorised as non-serious AEFI cases.
"We, at the Health Ministry, are closely monitoring the situation," he told newsmen when met after visiting the the Sekolah Kebangsaan Saujana Indah vaccination centre (PPV) here today.
Dr Noor Azmi said he would get more details on the one serious AEFI case during a briefing tomorrow.
The deputy minister advised parents to monitor their children for at least a week after their vaccination and not to allow them to engage in rough activities.
"They should report via the MySejahtera on anything involving their children's health.
"For those who can't access the MySejahtera app, they can go to the nearest clinic to report so that the necessary assistance can be rendered," he added.
Dr Noor Azmi said 50,000 vaccination jabs were recorded yesterday, which he described as a good improvement.
"We expect to see a daily increase of 1.5 per cent," he added.
PICKids started nationwide in early of February, initially involving children with comorbidities and those in the high-risk group.
The children were administered with the paediatric dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine which is proven to be safe and effective.
The Health Ministry has targeted for 70 per cent of children to receive their first dose within two months, and for 80 per cent of the overall four million children to be vaccinated.
Sarawak is the state with the highest number of PICKids vaccination rate followed by Melaka, the Klang Valley, Perak and Penang, all of which reported between 20 and 30 per cent.
The three states with the lowest PICKids vaccination rate were Kelantan, Terengganu and Sabah, all of which was below 10 per cent.
"Efforts are being taken to boost the vaccination rate in the three states and we urge parents to allow their children to be vaccinated to better protect themselves," Dr Noor Azmi added.
Dr Noor Azmi also said vaccination rate in the government Chinese vernicular schools (Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina) as of yesterday was between 31 and 74 per cent compared with the national primary schools (Sekolah Kebangsaan)'s 5.9 per cent to 21.9 per cent vaccination rate.