Ontario is expecting to receive its first shipment of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine next week, after Health Canada approved the use of the Moderna shot in children under the age of five.
The green light from Canada’s drug regulator clears the way for more than 700,000 infants and preschoolers in Ontario to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, more than 18 months after it was first made available to adults.
The Doug Ford government, which called the development “fantastic news,” said the first shipment of the vaccine from the federal government should arrive in Ontario “by late next week.”
“(Ontario) is ready to distribute the vaccines to sites across the province so we can begin to administer doses with the support of our local partners as soon as possible,” a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a statement.
While the province did not specify exactly how many doses it expects to receive, the federal government has distributed vaccines based on population share — typically giving Ontario between 38 to 40 per cent of vials procured by Canada.
The government indicated that additional information on when and how parents could book a vaccine will also be revealed next week ahead of the arrival of the initial shipment.
What’s unclear, however, is how many parents plan to inoculate their children against the virus.
Currently 57 per cent of children between the ages of five to 11 have received their primary dose of the vaccine, while just 37 per cent of the age group have receive their second dose.