When Health Canada approves the COVID-19 for younger children, the Porcupine Health Unit will be ready to go.
This week, Pfizer-BionNTech asked Health Canada to approve its vaccine for children ages five to 11. It is already approved for people 12 years and older.
Health Canada is prioritizing the submission's review. The doses for the five to 11-year-old age group are about one-third the size given to those 12 years and up.
Porcupine Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Lianne Catton is expecting to hear about the approval in late November or December.
“We will be ready to go, we have plans in place on how we’re going to move forward on that roll out once we hear news of the actual timeline of what we’re looking at,” she said in a virtual update yesterday.
She said the health unit is looking forward to the approval and the "opportunities that will bring to keep these kids in school, to make sure they’re able to continue with other activities and protect them from this infection.”
The health unit's vaccination plan is comprehensive and complex, she said, noting the PHU region is the largest geographical health unit in the province. There are also significant barriers and equity concerns in the region.
"We’ll continue our plans, as we have with the COVID vaccine clinics throughout all the age groups, in ensuring that we’re working with all of our local community partners, with partners that are involved with children and youth specifically and making sure that we have opportunities that address not only potentially concerns of parents but also that are providing access to clinics in a way that is really more conducive to young ones and their families,” said Catton.
The health unit will also be looking at adding different clinic locations to address concerns of neighbourhoods or the younger age group, such as sensory-friendly sites. They'll also be working with primary care providers and potentially pharmacies.
