https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20220221/k10013494211000.html
Vaccinations for children to be delivered to medical institutions from this week
Vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 with the novel coronavirus vaccine is expected to begin as early as this month, with delivery of the vaccine to medical institutions beginning this week.
Vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 was officially designated as an authorized public vaccination on the 21st, and vaccines will be delivered to medical institutions and local governments starting this week.
About 12 million doses of the vaccine are planned to be delivered nationwide throughout May, and vaccination is expected to begin in some areas as early as this month.
Compared to the vaccine for people over 12 years of age, the vaccine for children contains ⅓ the amount of active ingredients and is administered twice, 3 weeks apart.
Due to insufficient data on the efficacy of the vaccine against the Omicron variant, the vaccination is not, at present, an "effort obligation" that requires people aged 12 and over to receive the vaccine.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) is urging parents and guardians to make decisions based on data on efficacy and safety, after careful discussion between the child and the guardian, and consultation with the child's family doctor. They recommend that children with underlying diseases such as respiratory tract diseases should be vaccinated because they are at higher risk of serious illness.
The government does not recommend mass vaccination at schools, but rather mass vaccination by local governments or individual vaccination at pediatric clinics.
It is feared that some local governments will have difficulty in securing doctors and staff to support children receiving vaccinations, so the issue is how to ensure a system that makes it easy for children and their parents to receive vaccinations.