Appointments are already being booked for children in the 5-11 age group for the recently-approved COVID-19 pediatric vaccine.
The province noted in a news release as of 11 a.m. today (Mon), about 13-thousand appointments have been booked for this age group either online or through the provincial call centre. The province started taking appointments at 6 a.m.
“The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends children receive their COVID-19 vaccine two weeks before or after any other vaccines they may receive to better monitor for any side effects. Manitoba recommendations are consistent with NACI on this but children who have received a different vaccine within the last 14 days will not be turned away.” the province said in the news release.
Currently, appointments are only being booked at supersites, however, the province says the vaccine will arrive at participating medical clinics are pharmacies between this Thursday and next Monday.
Medical Lead of the Vaccination Task Force, Dr. Joss Reimer reassured parents that the vaccine, approved by Health Canada, is safe.
“The clinical trials showed that even with the lower dose, the immune response in children was just as good as in people aged 16-26,” she said. “There were also no safety signals identified during clinical trials for this vaccine, and for this age group, there were no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis identified in the trial.”
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
As of today, 87 percent of eligible Manitobans have had at least one dose and 84 percent received two doses. To date, over 2.1-million vaccine doses have been administered in the province.
Appointments can be made online at protectmb.ca/covid-19-vaccine or calling 1-844-626-8222.
