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Moderna Begins Testing its COVID-19 Vaccine in Young Children

VOA News

   U.S.-based pharmaceutical company Moderna has begun testing its
   two-dose COVID-19 vaccine in young children to determine if
   vaccinations should be expanded to people younger than 18years of age.

   The company will administer the vaccine to about 6,750 children in the
   United States and Canada betweenthe ages ofsix months and 12 years old.
   The doses would be given 28 days apart so researchers can monitor the
   side effects from the vaccine and determine its ultimate effectiveness.

   The study is being conducted in collaboration with the National
   Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which helped Moderna in
   development of the vaccine.

   Moderna has been conducting a separate study on the vaccine's safety
   and effectiveness since December involving 3,000 children betweenthe
   ages of12 and 18 years old.
   A nurse draws a Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Los
   Angeles, March 12, 2021.

   In a related development, the Vietnamesegovernment says its homegrown
   COVID-19 vaccine calledNanocovaxwill be available by the end of this
   year. Vietnam has inoculated more 15,000 of its citizens with the
   Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine this month, and is negotiating to purchase
   more vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the developer
   of Russia's Sputnik V.

   Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Wednesday that the
   country will send about 8,000 doses of its supply of the
   Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to neighboring Papua New Guinea, which is
   battling an ever-increasing spread of the disease. Prime Minister
   Morrison also called on the European Union and AstraZeneca to
   shiponemillion doses of the vaccine to Papua New Guinea that had been
   purchased by Canberra.

   The EU recently blocked a shipment of more than 250,000 doses of the
   Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to Australia in order to help make up an
   acute shortage of vaccines in Europe, plus Australia's success in
   largely containing the virus.

   Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters that half of
   expectant mothers who have been admitted to hospitals in the capital of
   Port Moresby have tested positive for COVID-19. Kelly said large
   numbers of frontline health care workers have also contracted the
   virus.

   Morrison says all travel between Australia and Papua New Guinea has
   been suspended.