Those between the ages 12 and 15 in the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph area can now be preregister for the COVID vaccine.
Registration for children aged 12 and older was previously scheduled for June in the area, however, on Wednesday, Health Canada announced that the Pfizer vaccine is safe for children aged 12 and up.
"Anyone can pre-register themselves for the COVID vaccine on our website. When someone arrives to receive a vaccine, nurses assess competence to determine if a parent or alternate decision-maker consent is required," said Rita Isley, director of community health at the WDG Public Health who leads the vaccination program.
Public Health spokesperson Danny Williamson said the organization does not anticipate any difficulty when pre-registering the age group.
“We do a lot of young person registration. We run a large Grade 7 vaccination for example. We don’t anticipate anything unusual,” said Williamson.
The federal government’s authorization comes after the completion of a successful Pfizer trial in March in which 2,260 adolescents between the ages of 12 to 15 were vaccinated. Pfizer said the trial “demonstrated 100 per cent efficacy and robust antibody responses, exceeding those recorded earlier in vaccinated participants aged 16 to 25 years old, and was well tolerated.”
In mid-April, WDG Public Health announced that anyone of the age 16 and over can preregister which means now, anyone over the age of 12 can preregister for the vaccine.
Williamson said WDG Public Health follows the provincial framework for vaccination.
In Ontario, the vaccine interval between the first and second vaccines is 16 weeks. The interval was extended in March to increase the number of people inoculated with their first dose before the federal government supplies additional doses.
“We book and vaccinate based on that framework,” said Williamson.
Williamson said WDG Public Health has already vaccinated a small number of people with the second dose based on the timeline of their first vaccination.
“You will start to see over the coming weeks especially as we start to get into June and July, We will start to hit a bulk of people who are hitting that timeline for second doses,” said Williamson.
WDG Public Health said it expects to receive over 51,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in May with 7,020 doses this week and an additional 44,000 by the end of May.
WDG Public Health has administered 116,971 total vaccines to date in the region with 110,023 residents vaccinated with their first dose.
