health official concerned about low childhood immunization rates | Rhode Island News

PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) – Senior public health official fears less than half of all eligible students in K-12 public schools Rhode Island have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

According to the most recent data available on the new website of the state Department of Health, showing immunization rates among all eligible public school students aged 5 years and older, 48% are partially immunized and 42% are fully vaccinated, reported WPRI-TV.

As of Wednesday, about 74% of the state’s total population had been fully immunized, according to department data.

“I am certainly concerned about young people,” Dr Philip Chan, the department’s consultant medical director, told the station.

He said that while parents worrying about the health of their children are “normal and reasonable”, vaccines against the coronavirus “have been available for over a year, we know they are safe and effective.”

The lowest immunization rates tend to be in elementary schools, where many students only recently became eligible.

Chan also noted a disparity between higher vaccination rates in better-off suburban schools and lower rates in schools in poorer urban areas.

Young people are less likely to become seriously ill or die after contracting the virus, medical experts say, but the latest wave of infections in Rhode Island is hitting young people hardest.

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