On Monday, Uzbekistan received the delivery 201.6 thousand doses of Pfizer's pediatric vaccine against COVID-19 as part of the global COVAX mechanism, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Authority said.

The vaccine was donated by the European Union and the Government of Sweden to support the efforts of the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan to vaccinate children aged 5-11 years and prevent the spread of new strains of COVID-19 in the country.

“Uzbekistan approved voluntary immunization of children aged 5-11 years with Pfizer vaccines against coronavirus infection in line with the recommendations of international and national experts and based on requests from the population. The 201,600 doses of childhood vaccine received today will help protect children from COVID-19,” said Bahodir Yusupaliyev, the chief of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Authority.

“Given the epidemic situation with the emergence of new variants of COVID-19 and the peculiarities of its course in children, all over the world, vaccination of children against this infection is now considered appropriate and extremely important to contain the pandemic. Vaccination of children against coronavirus infection is already being actively implemented in China, the USA, Canada, Israel, a number of European countries and Latin American countries.

Assistance in the delivery of the drug, as well as previous batches of vaccines under COVAX, was provided by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). To date, Uzbekistan has received a total of 21.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX. Of these, AstraZeneca - 2.15 million, Moderna - 10.68 million, Pfizer - 6.62 million and Sinovac - 1.77 million.