Head of Iashvili Children Hospital: ‘9 out of every 100 COVID-infected children need to be placed in hospital’

“Nine out of every 100 COVID-infected children need to be placed in hospital”, medical director of Iashvili Children Hospital and Head of Immunization Council Ivane Chkhaidze said.

Chkhaidze stated that the vaccination of children aged 12-15 is very important, as the number of COVID-infected children has increased in recent weeks in Georgia. He said in most cases, fully-vaccinated parents stand behind vaccinated children, which is an important tendency.

• Georgia allows Covid vaccination for ages 12-15

Ivane Chkhaidze also noted that vaccination of children aged 12-15 reduces the rate of infection and hospitalization in adults by 20-25%. He said there are 200,000 children between 12-15 living in Georgia.

If nearly 50,000 children are vaccinated against COVID-19, this will be a step forward in the fight against the pandemic in Georgia”, said Chkhaidze.

Ivane Chkhaidze also said that post-COVID-19 syndrome is typical not only in adults, but also children.

Depression, impaired concentration, difficulty learning, fever, cough, and shortness of breath are characteristic of long COVID (post-COVID) syndrome. So, a light form of illness does not always mean that children will be absolutely healthy in the coming months. Statistics show that 30% of COVID-infected children may still have symptoms some weeks later”, said Chkaidze.

Georgia approved coronavirus vaccination for teenagers between 12 and 15 years of age with the German-US Pfizer vaccine on November 9.

Children are able to receive the Pfizer vaccine at vaccination centres across the country if they have consent from their parents.