Most tamariki are at much lower risk of severe COVID than older age groups, and it's more important to be fully up to date with MMR and all routine childhood immunisations.

However, Australia’s technical advisory group has recently recommended COVID vaccinations for very high-risk children from 6 months to 5 years (eg: those undergoing cancer treatment).

In Australia, they are using the paediatric formulation of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine (Spikevax), which is not available in New Zealand at this time.

Our COVID Technical Advisory Group will be considering this age group in the near future and will review the evidence to date.

In the meantime, we recommend you continue to make sure all tamariki get currently available routine childhood immunisations against other serious vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough, and respiratory illnesses.