Canada receives more than 1M additional child COVID-19 vaccines: procurement minister

More than a million more COVID-19 vaccines for children have arrived in Canada, the country’s public services and procurement minister says.

In a press release issued Tuesday, Filomena Tassi said a shipment of 1.136 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty COVID-19 pediatric vaccine arrived in Canada on Monday.

The release said this means children aged five to 11 in Canada “will be able to receive their second dose as soon as they are eligible.”

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The government said it will be “working closely with provinces to distribute doses as quickly as possible.”

Earlier this year, Canada received 2.9 million pediatric vaccine doses, which the government said was enough to “provide every eligible child in Canada with a first dose.”

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Canadian parents “have been worried about how to adequately protect their children from COVID-19.”

“And we know that vaccination is an important tool in their tool box,” Duclos said in the release. “As a parent, I’m particularly glad to see the arrival of this second batch of pediatric doses.”

He said this will “ensure that more Canadian youth can get their shots, helping to reduce COVID-19 transmission during the holiday season.”

The pediatric vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech for children aged five to 11 was green-lit by Health Canada on Nov. 19.

Federal data suggests that as of Dec. 11, 31.59 per cent of children aged five to 11 had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine, with 1.14 per cent having had two doses.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that children between five and 11 receive two doses of the COVID-19 shot, administered at least eight weeks apart.

The most recent PHAC data suggests that as of Dec. 17, children zero to 11 account for 226,180 (12.3 per cent) of the country’s COVID-19 cases.