With approval from Health Canada secured, it won’t be long before local officials are doling out COVID vaccine to kids under the age of 12.
Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says as with the early days of the vaccination effort, it all depends on supply.
“This is a new vaccine, it’s not the same as the adults are getting, so that hasn’t been clarified yet but supposedly the shipments are ready to go so we anticipate starting before December.”
While appointments aren’t being booked quite yet, plans are already in place for clinics across Chatham-Kent.
“We’re going to open up the Bradley Centre again, not at the same scale as what was done previously, but we’re definitely going to be using multiple venues to deliver that vaccine,” Colby explains. “We expect there’s going to be a fairly big rush at the beginning and then that will settle down because this is not a huge cohort of people in Chatham-Kent.”
The first shipment of child-sized COVID vaccines arrived on Canadian soil Sunday night with 2.9 million doses expected to be delivered by the end of the week.
In the meantime, Public Health has dedicated a section of its website to vaccinating younger children with the latest information from experts in the field, frequently asked questions, and strategies to help kids who might be afraid of needles. CLICK HERE for more.
