Routine child immunisation rates stand at 95% — Health Ministry

AMMAN — The rate of routine child inoculations has risen to more than 95 per cent of the target categories under the Kingdom’s national immunisation programme, according to Secretary-General for Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases Affairs at the Ministry of Health, Adel Balbisi.

The ministry pays “remarkable” attention to the process of vaccinating newborns up to school age to protect their health, he said in a statement cited by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The ministry continues to provide vaccination services in the maternity and childhood departments in Jordan’s health centres, with the aim of reaching the targeted categories to raise immunisation rates, according to Balbisi.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a “noticeable” decline during 2020 in the child immunisation rates as a result of the lockdown, Balbisi said.

The ministry, he noted, had resumed the process of child vaccination process within the national immunization programme as soon as the Kingdom’s sectors began to open.

Referring to the ministry’s measures to restore pre-pandemic immunisation rates, he said this drive led to gradually increasing inoculated children, thanks to the intensified field and supervisory tours to the health directorates and centres countrywide.

A comprehensive evaluation of Jordan’s national immunisation programme was conducted in cooperation with the World Health Organisation with the aim of identifying related challenges, he pointed out.