Vaccination of Children in 5-11 Age Group Authorized

The National Coronavirus Headquarters on Saturday authorized the vaccination of all children aged five to 11 against Covid in an effort to keep in-person schooling alive as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spurs shift in immunization and reopening plans.     
“The NCH approved the step by step vaccination of the five to 11 age group across the country after parental consent is obtained,” head of the Health Ministry’s Public Relations and Information Center, Mohammad Hashemi, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
The proposal to lower vaccine eligibility age was submitted to the NCH three weeks ago, days after the first Omicron case was detected in the capital Tehran. 
Hashemi said, “Schools will remain open, they are not closed. If the NCH decides on a new course of action, it will be announced.”
Schools in Iran have resumed operations in the past three months after nearly three semesters of distance learning.
The country launched the immunization campaign of 12-to-18-year-olds in early autumn to prepare for school reopening. 
The highly contagious Omicron variant has been spreading easily among children throughout the world as they were categorized as the lowest priority group to get vaccinated. 
The inoculation of children will start with the 9-11 age group and later extend to kids between five to nine years old. 
Tehran Governor-General Mohsen Mansouri said on Saturday that the decision to vaccinate 9-11-year-olds was made based on the experience of various countries, research review and scientific foundations. 
According to Mansouri, President Ebrahim Raisi was present in the meeting that gave the greenlight to kid vaccinations. 

Tackling Vaccine Hesitancy 

Raisi in Saturday morning’s meeting urged media outlets, celebrities and scientific figures to encourage vaccination among vaccine-hesitant people. 
“It is necessary that [they] explain the importance of receiving a third shot in protecting people’s lives,” the top official was quoted as saying by his website.
Currently, anyone aged 18 and above in Iran is being offered a booster dose to maintain immunity against the Omicron variant.  
Over 16% of Iranians (14.2 million) have been administered a third shot, 53 million have received two shots and 60 million have received only the first shot. 
Since the start of the immunization campaign back in February 2021, health authorities have given out 128.2 million jabs to curb the outbreak. 
Over the past 24 hours, 3,500 more people tested positive for the coronavirus, taking the national tally of cases to 6.24 million. 
The daily infections were down by 30% compared to earlier. On Friday, the Health Ministry registered a two-month high of 5,000 daily infections. 
Some 30 patients lost their lives to the respiratory illness in the past day, taking the death toll to 132,202. 
Worldwide Covid-19 cases continue to surge driven by the Omicron variant, as infections climbed to 347.4 million and mortalities reached 5.6 million.