YANGON (XINHUA) – In a government-run school in the east-central part of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon recently, seven-year-old Htet Nyar Khant, along with his friends, waited to receive his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
Despite some of his friends saying they were afraid of needles, Htet Nyar told Xinhua he was brave and ready to get vaccinated. The vaccination was to fight COVID-19, he added.
In the morning, most primary school students wearing white and green uniforms waited in the classrooms or in line outside the vaccination room for inoculation. Teachers and health workers arranged and helped them receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Schoolchildren aged five to 12 are receiving the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine with approvals from their parents and guardians,” a school teacher said.
According to the Health Ministry, Myanmar has some 3.62 million school children aged five to 12, and they were currently being inoculated with China’s Sinopharm vaccine.
Some one million children aged five to 15, who are not attending school, in the country will also be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Health Ministry said.
Myanmar, home to over 55.6 million people, has been vaccinating children aged five to 12 since June 2.
The ministry stressed the need for eligible persons to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19, saying that data show the rate of deaths from the pandemic could be significantly reduced by vaccination.
Over 27.02 million people in Myanmar have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and more than 2.2 million have received booster shots, official data showed. Myanmar already administered over 62.25 million doses of COVID-19 to its people as of June 7, it said.
