LAHORE: The Corona Experts Advisory Group (CEAG) has allowed administration of Pfizer vaccine to the children who have undergone liver, kidney and bone-marrow transplant.

The decision was taken in a CEAG meeting which was called after the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) head sought permission to vaccinate under-18 children who had undergone complicated surgeries.

Headed by specialised healthcare and medical education department secretary Amir Jan, the meeting was also attended by primary and secondary healthcare department secretary Sara Aslam, CEAG Chairman Prof Mahmood Shaukat, CMH Lahore Commandant Brig Ghulam Akbar, Mayo Hospital Chief Executive Officer Prof Dr Saqib Saeed, Punjab Healthcare Commission Director Dr Anwar Janjua, Dr Javed Hayat Khan from PKLI and other senior medical experts and officers.

The meeting discussed in detail the issue of the risk for the children undergoing liver, kidney and bone-marrow transplant of getting infected by Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The threat of fourth wave of the virus also came under discussion in the meeting which stressed the need to expand the scope of vaccination to reach the target population of Punjab.

The CEAG declared that the Pfizer vaccine would be safe for the children who had undergone critical surgeries at the PKLI.

During the meeting, Ms Aslam said so far 12.6 million people had been vaccinated all over the province.

She said the department had assigned a target to the teams to vaccinate 37.2 million people of Punjab by the end of December 2021. She said the Punjab province had reported 382 new positive cases during the last 24 hours, taking the total number to 351,000.

She said the total number of Covid deaths in Punjab had reached 10,892, after 11 more patients succumbed to the virus during the same period across the province.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2021