Invitations to book COVID-19 vaccine appointments for kids aged five to 11 will start rolling out next week in B.C., health officials announced Tuesday.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, Health Minister Adrian Dix and Dr. Penny Ballem, the lead of B.C.'s immunization rollout, announced the vaccine rollout plan in an afternoon presentation.
Last week, Health Canada announced its approval of Pfizer-BioNTech's two-dose vaccine for children ages five to 11. The vaccine will be a smaller dose than what's given to those aged 12 and older.
"This is a major step forward," Ballem said.
B.C. officials have said the province will receive enough doses to vaccinate the 360,000 children in that age category as soon as possible. About 91,000 children have already been registered, officials said.
The first step for kids to get vaccinated is for parents or guardians to register them through the province's Get Vaccinated system. Registration is ongoing and parents are urged to sign their children up as soon as possible.
Children must have actually turned five to get their vaccine. Even if they're turning five soon, they must wait until their birthday, officials explained. Once they turn 12, they will receive the adult dose, even if they got the pediatric dose for their first shot.
Invitations to book appointments will start rolling out on Monday, Nov. 29, officials said. They won't be distributed by age, but in the same order that children were registered. There may be appointments available as early as that day.
Appointments are mandatory and drop-ins are strongly discouraged.
- with files from CTV -