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White House: COVID-19 vaccination program for 5 to 11-year-olds to be up and running next week

By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
By Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

The Food and Drug Administration gave its approval for children aged 5 to 11 to receive a smaller dose of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer.

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Photos: Elementary-age kids get their first COVID-19 vaccine shots Dr. Rhonda Achonolu comforts her son Amechi, 7, as he is inoculated with first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore, Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Parents who have been waiting to get their children inoculated against the coronavirus will be able to do so soon.

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The White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Monday that the distribution of the child-sized shots should be fully up and running starting next week, Reuters reported.

Shortly after the FDA’s approval, Zients had told NPR that the shots would not be instantly available after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives its final approval, which is expected to come this week.

>>Previous coverage: Coronavirus: FDA panel endorses Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children 5-11

“We are hard at work, planning the logistics and making sure that vaccines will be available at tens of thousands of sites that parents and kids know and trust,” Zients told NPR.

Some of those sites include 25,000 pediatricians’ and doctors’ offices, New York Magazine reported.

>>Related: Coronavirus: Moderna says FDA needs more time to assess EUA for teen vaccines

Zients told reporters during a virtual briefing Monday that 15 million doses of Pfizer’s children’s COVID-19 vaccines are being shipped, Reuters reported.

He said the government has ordered enough vaccines for every 5- to 11-year-old in the country, NPR reported.

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