Samdech, His Excellency, Lok Chumteav
We decided to vaccinate children from 6 to 12 years old. If we do not vaccinate children from 6 to 12 years old, we will not be able to open the primary school because this is the age of the primary school, and we now have only reopened secondary school, so it poses difficulty. In addition, the vaccine has been studied in different countries and has already been given to children under 12 years of age. Therefore, the problem of vaccination is not complex. On the one hand, the vaccine is allowed to be injected. On the other hand, we already have the vaccine in hand. According to the preliminary statistics provided by HE Aun Porn Moniroth, the number of children is only around 1.8 million.
So I decided to launch another campaign this Friday to vaccinate children aged 6 to 12-year-olds after we almost finished vaccinating children and adolescents from 12 to 17 and 18. We are now launching a campaign starting at the age of 6 to 12, and we need to launch this campaign across the country. We will start it at the Peace Palace at the national level, as we did for children and adolescents in the past. After that, I will have a press conference. Please, Excellencies, Lok Chumteav, especially in the health sector, as well as to the Committee for Vaccination throughout the country, as well as the Sub-Committee on Vaccination in the capital/province, be prepared to organize the distribution of vaccines and organize medical teams to implement the vaccination campaign for more than 1.8 million children between the ages of 6 and 12, or nearly 1.9 million, which is due to begin this Friday.
So, we should not have any significant problem because we already have a team of doctors at each locations and we already have Sinovac vaccine for the injection, so be prepared for the additional preparation which in the past, parents and guardians accompanied their children and teenagers from 12 to 18 years to inject. Now, in addition, parents and guardians need to get children from 6 to 12 years old for injections. We already have the vaccination site. The closed vaccination site should also be reopened to vaccinate our children, which our children and adolescents have so far been vaccinated more than 1.7 million.
We do this so that children who have to go to primary school can go without fear since they have been vaccinated. Otherwise, the age range of 6 to 12 years may be out of touch since previously we only required for secondary school. But we move step by step. And the next step we are thinking of is for children in kindergarten from 3 to 6 years old. That is the next step, but now we need to address the issue of vaccination for children aged 6 to 12, which will give our children the opportunity to attend primary school, which will be reopened after the reopening of secondary, high school, and university that we have been doing today.
Please prepare for this Friday. I will launching (the campaign) at the national level at the Peace Palace (in Phnom Penh). I would like to ask His Excellency Lok Chumteav to bring their children and grandchildren to go to the Peace Palace (for their vaccinations) under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. Thank you!
