Child vaccinations required to receive welfare

Brazil’s Health Ministry Tuesday announced the COVID-19 vaccine will now be added to the mandatory annual National Immunization Program (PNI) for children.

The Lula administration will prioritize children aged six months to five years old for the shots, reports Gazeta Brasil.

“During the pandemic, a parallel program was created to operationalize the Covid-19 vaccine, outside of our national program,” said the Health Ministry’s Health and Environment Surveillance Secretary Ethel Maciel. “What we did this year was to bring the vaccine against Covid-19 into the National Immunization Program. The vaccine is now recommended in the children’s calendar. For all children born or who are in Brazil, aged between 6 months and under 5 years, the vaccine becomes mandatory in the vaccination calendar.”

Parents of unvaccinated children will be denied welfare and may be subject to fines, reports Revista Oeste. Unvaccinated children will be denied entry to schools.