PETALING JAYA: Parents should not take their children who are unvaccinated out of home unnecessarily, says an ear, nose and throat (ENT) specialist.
Consultant ENT surgeon Datuk Dr Balwant Singh Gendeh also advised parents to avoid bringing their unvaccinated children along if they are on a business trip.
“Travel should be limited and unvaccinated children must not travel unnecessarily.
“As they are not vaccinated, there is a high chance of them getting infected by the virus, especially the Omicron variant that is fast spreading in the community,” he said when contacted.
Dr Balwant Singh, who is Association of Specialists in Private Medical Practice of Malaysia president, said the United States Food and Drug Administration had recently authorised the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine for the prevention of Covid-19 to include children between five and 11 years old.
“By vaccinating children, they will have antibodies against the disease. We strongly advise parents and grandparents to get their booster shots as soon as possible.
“Parents and grandparents who are outside most of the time might be carriers and are asymptomatic.
“They could bring it home to their children and grandchildren.
“It is very dangerous to these young kids as they do not have protection.
“If children have been vaccinated and were infected, they will likely only be in Category One and Two,” he said.
One Omicron case was detected in an eight-year-old female Malaysian child who was living with her family in Lagos, Nigeria, and had reported a negative RT-PCR Covid-19 test result before departing for Malaysia.
The case was detected when the child, her younger sister and her mother had arrived in Malaysia on Dec 5 after transiting through Doha, Qatar, but reported a positive result on Dec 7.
New York City saw four-fold increase in Covid-19 hospital admissions for children under 18 since Dec 5.
It was reported that about half of the admissions were younger than five, an age group that is vaccine ineligible.