Schools have been asked by the DE and the HSE to share the following information:
COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommends parents and guardians consider vaccinating their 5 to 11 year old children.
COVID-19 vaccine is particularly recommended if children:
· Have a health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19
· live with a younger child or adult who is at risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19 e.g. another child with complex medical needs, or an immunocompromised adult
The vaccine that will be offered to children aged 5 to 11 years is Comirnaty® Children’s formulation. Children in this age group will be given a smaller dose of the vaccine than adults. Parents and guardians can register their child for their vaccine online at https://vaccine.hse.ie/. As part of this stage of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, information for people considering vaccinating their children including information about the benefits and risk of vaccination and information about how to get vaccinated is available on https://bit.ly/HSEC19511
A cartoon strip has also been developed to help children understand what will happen when they go to a HSE clinic to get their COVID-19 vaccine https://bit.ly/C19Cartoon511 Page 2 of 2
Getting COVID-19 vaccines with other vaccines
NIAC advises that children aged 5 to 11 years wait at least 2 weeks between getting a COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, like the flu vaccine or 4 in 1 and MMR vaccines. Children aged 2 to 17 years can get the free nasal flu vaccine through participating GPs and pharmacies until the end of this month. Information about the flu vaccination programme is available on the HSE website at www.hse.ie/flu. A list of pharmacies giving flu vaccines is also available on https://bit.ly/PhFluFinder Children in Junior Infants may also be due their 4 in 1 and MMR vaccine, school teams will work with your school to ensure where possible the vaccination programme continues and children whose parents have consented for them to receive 4in1 and MMR vaccine can do so.
Consent
Only parent(s) and legal guardian(s) are entitled to provide consent for vaccination for students under 16 years of age. A video covering information about consent is available from our office YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/vE1X5AcwNgE
