The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines for children landed in Canada on Sunday, clearing the way for provinces and territories to prepare in earnest for the next phase of the national mass immunization campaign.
A UPS plane with thousands of pediatric doses landed in the rain at a Hamilton airport, with Federal Procurement Minister Filomena Tassi on hand to mark its arrival.
Tassi clapped and cheered as workers unloaded huge gray containers from the plane’s upper deck.
Sunday’s delivery marks the first of an expedited shipment of vaccines targeting children between the ages of five and 11.
Health Canada announced Friday that it had approved a modified version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in that demographic, and Ottawa immediately promised that some injections would be on Canadian soil 48 hours later.
Tassi said on Friday that Canada would have 2.9 million doses available by the end of the week, enough to offer a first dose to all children in the recently approved age group.
Health Canada’s approval came after a month-long review of safety and efficacy data from the pharmaceutical giants.
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The regulator said the vaccine, which is administered in a smaller dose than the adult version and has a slightly different formula, was 90.7 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 in children and produced no identified serious side effects.
The provinces welcomed both the vaccine’s approval and its imminent arrival, but largely refrained from disclosing plans to give injections into children’s arms until supplies arrived.
New Brunswick issued a statement Sunday saying that eligibility for the vaccine will be expanded to include children ages five to 11 as soon as the pediatric dose supply is received, but the province did not offer information on when it was expected.
Plane with doses of COVID-19 vaccines for children lands in Canada. #CDNPoli # Covid19
Many public health units in Ontario had not updated their implementation plans until Sunday afternoon, with regions such as Peel, Windsor-Essex and Waterloo saying on Friday appointments were expected to open earlier this week.
The Durham Region said Friday that it anticipated the opening of reserve sites on Monday, while Toronto Public Health issued a statement Friday saying it was preparing to open 20,000 spaces between November 25 and December 5 in clinics of immunization administered by the city.
Manitoba was one of the few jurisdictions to release reserve information before Sunday. The province announced Friday that parents and caregivers could begin making first-dose appointments for eligible children by phone or online starting at 6 a.m.Monday.
Sean Sedlacek, a father in Winnipeg, said he will try to get his five-year-old son an appointment as soon as seats open.
Sedlacek said he and his wife felt “an incredible sense of relief” on Friday when it emerged that Health Canada had licensed the pediatric vaccine from Pfizer.
Sedlacek and his wife made appointments to get vaccinated once they were eligible earlier this year, and they said they want to do the same for their only son.
“We really just want to protect it as much as possible,” he said. “I know the risks are much lower for younger children, but you can’t control what other people are doing. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to protect our family.”
In British Columbia, meanwhile, parents have already been able to pre-register their children for an appointment online or by phone. The province said more than 75,000 children had registered as of Friday, putting them on a list to be contacted for an appointment when the reservation opens.
Alberta announced a similar pre-registration program, adding that the province should begin administering injections by the end of this week, provided doses arrive as expected.
Saskatchewan is scheduled to release details Monday about its plans to vaccinate the roughly 115,000 children in the five to 11-year-old age group. Health and education officials are working to set up clinics in schools, and Education Minister Dustin Duncan said last week that the government is also working on a plan to ensure anti-vaccine protesters don’t show up at schools. schools as they have in hospitals.
Meanwhile, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé said Friday that the province’s immunization plan will be released this week, adding that he hopes to have 700,000 children in the approved age range vaccinated with their first dose for Christmas.
Some public health units are establishing vaccination clinics in schools and expanding existing mass vaccination sites. Pharmacies and family doctor’s offices are also expected to offer hits in some jurisdictions.
Toronto has said that hundreds of schools in Ontario’s most populous city will host clinics, but no vaccinations will be administered during school hours.
Children should not be vaccinated without parental consent.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children on October 29, and the United States has already immunized more than two million children.
Dr. Samira Jeimy, an allergist and immunologist at Western University in London, Ontario, said it can be frustrating for anxious parents to be told they have to wait to schedule vaccine appointments for their children.
“I don’t blame the parents who have been waiting on the edge of their seats, like me,” he said in an interview Saturday. “I understand from the point of view of trying to keep things organized, but I feel like we really should have been ready to mobilize things.”
– With files from Melissa Couto Zuber in Toronto and Rob Drinkwater in Edmonton
This Canadian Press report was first published on November 21, 2021.
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com