Pre-registration opens for children aged 5 to 11 to get COVID vaccine

Sounder News

Caregivers of children aged 5 to 11 years old can now pre-register those children for COVID-19 vaccinations.

The web site is www.getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca/s/

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has expanded the indoor mask mandate in BC to include children aged 5 to 11 years old.

She has revised the public health order requiring masks be worn in indoor public settings to include children five and older to align with the school mask-wearing requirements.

Masks are already required for all persons (students and staff) in BC schools from Kindergarten to Grade 12 to wear inside schools.

There is currently no COVID-19 vaccine approved for use in children 5-11yo in Canada.

However Pfizer has released preliminary research from the company’s trials into the use of its vaccine in children. While the dose is approximately one-third of the dose given to persons over the age of 12, the effectiveness against COVID-19 has shown a strong and safe response after two shots.

Pfizer has formally applied for approval in the US for use of its vaccine in children, and is expected to make a similar formal application to Health Canada.

As of Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021, 88.9% (4,120,063) of eligible people 12 and older in B.C. have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 82.7% (3,835,508) have received their second dose.

In addition, 89.4% (3,864,764) of all eligible adults in B.C. have received their first dose and 83.4% (3,609,210) received their second dose.

B.C. is reporting 605 new cases of COVID-19, including 18 epi-linked cases, for a total of 195,186 cases in the province.

There are 5,172 active cases of COVID-19 in the province and 187,564 people who tested positive have recovered. Of the active cases, 374 people are in hospital and 153 are in intensive care. The remaining people are recovering at home in self-isolation.

From Oct. 5-11, people not fully vaccinated accounted for 68.0% of cases and from Sept. 28-Oct. 11, they accounted for 73.4% of hospitalizations.

Past week cases (Oct. 5-11) – Total 4,206

* Not vaccinated: 2,571 (61.1%)

* Partially vaccinated: 291 (6.9%)

* Fully vaccinated: 1,344 (32.0%)

Past two weeks cases hospitalized (Sept. 28-Oct. 11) – Total 346

* Not vaccinated: 229 (66.2%)

* Partially vaccinated: 25 (7.2%)

* Fully vaccinated: 92 (26.6%)

Past week, cases per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Oct. 5-11)

* Not vaccinated: 278.3

* Partially vaccinated: 80.5

* Fully vaccinated: 32.1

Past two weeks, cases hospitalized per 100,000 population after adjusting for age (Sept. 28-Oct. 11)

* Not vaccinated: 36.7

* Partially vaccinated: 10.7

* Fully vaccinated: 2.1

Since December 2020, the Province has administered 7,991,932 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.