Vaccination of young children at most Flemish vaccination centres from today
From today (Saturday 8 January) most vaccination centres in Flanders will start administering coronavirus vaccines to children between the ages of 5 and 11. The parents of 3 in 4 children within this age group have already received an invitation from the Flemish Health and Care Agency to get their child (or children) vaccinated. The Agency’s Dirk De Wolf told VRT News that children will only be vaccinated if their parents have given permission.
Parents that don’t wish for their child to be vaccinated can inform the Flemish Health and Care agency via an online platform. In the case of parents that are divorced or separated and are no longer in touch, one parent can refuse the vaccine for their child/children by informing the vaccination centre of their wishes. In this case the child will not be vaccinated even if the other parent takes them to the vaccination centre to get a jab.
Parents can also arrange for their children to be vaccinated together. "In all probability this won’t cause any logistical problems as we expect uptake of the vaccine in this age group to be lower, as was the case among adolescents”,Mr De Wolf told VRT News.