Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says B.C. is hoping to be ready to provide vaccines for the 340,000 children in the province between the ages of 5 and 11 by early-November.
She also announced a change to the provincial public mask mandate requiring children 5 years of age and older to wear masks in all indoor public spaces, bringing it in sync with the fact children from k to 12 in the school system are required to mask up indoors.
Henry said that data on the vaccine for children is now being reviewed by Health Canada, adding that the vaccine for children may be available “as early as early-November.”
Pfizer and BioNTech, which manufacture the vaccine known as Comirnaty said their vaccine showed a strong immune response among 2,268 children ages five to 11. Jessica Podraza photo courtesy of Unsplash.com
As part of their trial, Pfizer and BioNTech, which manufacture the vaccine known as Comirnaty said their vaccine showed a strong immune response among 2,268 children ages five to 11.
Data showed the two-shot mRNA vaccine generated an immune response paralleling that which was observed in the 16 to 25 age cohort. The companies used a lower dosage in the children – roughly a third of the amount that adults are given.
“We continue to talk with school communities, families and parents to ensure the process will be as seamless as possible for everyone and make sure that our logistics are all in place so that we can provide this vaccine, as soon as it’s available.”
Henry also noted that health authorities will be focusing first on communities where transmission risk is highest, but they are trying to do a broad approach across the province. It’s unclear at this point whether the vaccine will be “fridge-stable” or will require freezing which carries greater logistics requirements.
“We have had some early indications it might be, but right now we’re hearing that it will need to be transported frozen and it will have a limited time in the fridge,” she said.
In the meantime, parents can now pre-register their children in the same way that adults and older children have over the preceding months.
“Notification of eligibility to book an appointment will be provided as soon as these vaccines are approved for use by Health Canada and we have a sense of when they’re going to be available to us in the province,” Henry added.
