Abstract

Background: A lot of countries worldwide had reported a decrease in routine immunization during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the same was observed. This study aimed to assess the percentage of children who delayed vaccination and the difficulties their caregivers faced to vaccinate them since the start of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out from December 2020 to February 2021 on 269 caregivers of children below 6 years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. An Arabic questionnaire was used to collect data about missing vaccines during the Coronavirus disease (COVID-A19) pandemic, missed vaccines, causes of missing vaccines, and awareness of the importance of vaccination.
Results: During the lockdown, 65.8% of the participants said that their child’s vaccine was delayed. Fear of infection (37.5%), lack of appointments (18.2%), and difficulty getting to the healthcare clinics were the most common reasons for the delay (14.1%). Most participants agreed that delaying the child’s vaccination could affect their health, and 88.1% agreed that their awareness about vaccinations increased after the COVID-19 infection. Almost half of the participants (47.2%) heard about home vaccinations and 76.2% supported these services. Participants who had never attended home vaccination services had a far higher chance of delaying their child’s vaccination during the lockdown.
Conclusion: During the COVID-19 pandemic, most pediatric vaccines in Jeddah were postponed, according to this study. Increasing the awareness of childhood vaccinations for caregivers to prevent the delay of childhood vaccinations during the pandemic is needed.

Key words: COVID-19, lockdown, childhood, Covid 19 vaccination, vaccinations.