New Brunswick’s population eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine grew by about 54,000 Tuesday, as the province opened up its booking system to people between the ages of 5 and 11.
The paediatric vaccine rollout will start Friday with clinics run by Horizon and Vitalité throughout the province. The closest locations to Sackville available this weekend are the Moncton Coliseum and the Albert County Community Health Centre. But as of Wednesday, more clinic locations are available for booking in Zone 1, including the Sackville Visitor Information Centre, now booking for December 5, from 9am to 5pm.
There are about 750 kids in the 5 to 11-year-old age cohort living in the Sackville region.
In a news conference Tuesday, health minister Dorothy Shephard said the department will make adjustments to the rollout as gaps are identified.
“What we need to see is the bookings that are happening, and then where we might have gaps,” said Shephard. “We’re talking about 54,000 compared to the hundreds of thousands that we’ve already done.”
Shephard said the province would start this weekend and “pivot when we need to,” by expanding services and bringing pharmacies online.
In Sackville, the Corner Drug Store has been a major player in the vaccine rollout with over 9000 shots administered, but the pharmacy will not be spearheading the paediatric rollout, according to pharmacist-owner Charles Beaver. The pharmacy continues to administer first, second, and now booster shots to those 12 and over, and “we simply don’t have more capacity to offer,” Beaver told CHMA last week.
Campaign to get kids vaccinated will not include mandates, yet
Chief Medical Officer Jennifer Russell said Tuesday that surveys at the federal level indicate that only about 50% of parents are planning to get their children vaccinated.
Minister Shephard said she was not yet planning to make the paediatric vaccine mandatory for kids to play organized sports or go to restaurants. “We really don’t want parents under any more duress,” said Shephard. “We want them to be able to get their education into the vaccines as freely as they will.”
Russell said public health is running an educational campaign on social media to inform people about the vaccine and encourage uptake. To that end, family doctor Rachelle Ouellette also presented at Tuesday’s press conference, encouraging parents to consider vaccinating their kids.
Ouellette explained the dosage for the paediatric vaccine is about one third that of adult doses, and the clinical trials showed the vaccine was over 90% effective for children aged 5 to 11 after two doses. The recommendation from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization is that doses are given at least 8 weeks apart.
“I want to assure all parents that the COVID-19 vaccine has been thoroughly tested and has been found to be safe for children,” said Ouellette, who is also a parent of small kids. She said Health Canada is “recognized internationally for its independent drug review process and it bases its decision on scientific and medical evidence that shows the vaccine is safe and effective.”
Dr. Russell responded to questions from reporters wondering what she would say to parents who were considering foregoing the vaccine for their kids, because of the lower risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 for that age group. Russel pointed to both protection for kids against long term effects and complications, and also the benefits to the larger community in terms of reducing transmission.
“When you’re talking about children, we want to protect every single one of them,” said Russell. “So even if the number of kids who would get sick is very small, that is not an insignificant amount when it comes to children.”
“We also know that the benefit for the community is also there with respect to lowering transmission, lowering the number of people who will get infected,” said Russell. People who are double vaccinated have about 25% less chance of getting COVID, said Russell, and also reduced risk of transmitting the disease if they have it.
“With the Delta variant and other variants that may emerge, we do need to take advantage of all of those opportunities,” said Russell, ”no matter how small a fraction we’re looking at. We do need to continue to try to look at those numbers and keep them as low as possible.”
