Health centres making COVID-19 vaccination appointments for children 5-11
Vaccine now available in Iqaluit, will arrive in other communities by Dec. 9, Nunavut government says
The Government of Nunavut has begun making appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations for children between five and 11. Nunavik’s health board began administering vaccinations to kids over the weekend. (Image by PIR04D from Pixabay)
COVID-19 vaccinations are now available for Nunavut children between the ages of five and 11 years, about 10 days after the federal government approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children on Nov. 19.
The Nunavut government released a delivery schedule on Monday, showing that doses of vaccines are to arrive in communities throughout the territory between Nov. 29 and Dec. 9.
It cautioned that the delivery schedule could be affected by weather or other unexpected delays.
The Government of Nunavut issued a statement last week, announcing that the pediatric vaccines were expected to arrive in the territory over the weekend, about a week after the first shipment of children’s vaccines arrived in Canada on Nov. 21.
Vaccinations have been available to Canadian adults since early January and for teens between 12 and 18 years old over the summer, but it wasn’t until Nov. 19 that Health Canada approved a vaccine for children between five and 11.
A government public service announcement called the vaccine “Nunavut’s best protection against this virus” and encouraged everyone who is eligible to get one.
Parents can begin making appointments as of Monday to have their children vaccinated by calling their local health centre. A parent must accompany the child to the vaccination appointment to give consent for the vaccination, the Government of Nunavut says.
In Iqaluit, the pediatric vaccine will be available at Iqaluit public health in Building 1091 by the old airport terminal. Vaccinations will be administered between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and between 1:15 p.m. and 4:15 p.m. from Monday to Friday. Public health is also offering “after-hours” appointments from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., and again from 1 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
In Nunavik, vaccinations for children began last week. Vaccination teams are travelling to communities across the region and vaccine appointments will be available to children in some schools. The Nunavik health board posted pictures of children getting their first doses on its Facebook page over the weekend. Nunavik’s board had previously stated its goal is to vaccinate all the region’s children between five and 11 by Christmas, a spokeswoman said on Nov. 22.
If only all the adults got vaccinated, the children wouldn’t have to go through this. It’s not like children fly around the cities and bring covid in, but they are a higher risk to spread it around the villages. Now that parental negligence has happened, our children are the ones who will be the responsible ones to prevent the wide spreading virus.
The so called adults that are refusing to get vaccinated are now being protected by 5,6,7 year olds. You unvaccinated people of kuujjuaraapik should be ashamed of yourself. You are the ones that should protect them instead.
A proud kuujjuaraapik-er
My eligible children are being vaccinated. My gf, me, and those around us will have peace of mind. Knowing that there is only a 20% chance that the delta variant can be spread to us.. I’ll take it.