ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss health authorities will start administering the COVID-19 vaccination from Pfizer and BioNTech to children aged five to eleven from next month and recommended kids get two doses of the shot.
“If they wish, parents or legal guardians can have their child vaccinated on the basis of an individual assessment of the benefits and risks, as soon as the vaccination is available,” the Federal Office of Public Health said on Tuesday.
Supplies should be available from the beginning of January, it added.
The recommendation particularly applies to children who already have serious health risks owing to a chronic condition. The vaccination is recommended as a priority for children who have close contact with people at especially high risk in the same household who cannot obtain protection from vaccination, for example because they have a weakened immune system, it said.
(Reporting by Michael Shields, editing by Silke Koltrowitz)
