Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew has called for an urgent decision on the vaccination of 12-15 year-olds.

The chair of the health committee said:

“Increasing transmission rates in schools are causing serious disruption for students who have already endured 18 months of instability in their education. Our vaccination uptake is the lowest on these islands and this week’s data shows that the highest percentage of individuals testing positive here are now in the 10-14 age group.

“This is deeply worrying and demands an urgent decision on the vaccination of 12-15 year-olds.  

“While the JCVI in Britain have not yet recommended vaccination for 12-15 year-olds they appear to be an outlier with countries across the world, for example the south of Ireland, France, Italy and so forth. 

“Rolling out vaccinations to these children has been recommended by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Centre for Disease Control (CDC-USA) and others. 

“Children in the south in this age group are currently being vaccinated resulting in a reduction in numbers of infections across the state. 

“The health minister and his advisers need to give full and urgent consideration to the roll-out of the vaccine to this age group.”