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Manitoba keeping eye on Pfizer vaccine for youth news; prepared for future decision

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WINNIPEG -

Pfizer said Monday its COVID-19 vaccine works for children ages 5 to 11, and while they haven’t applied to Health Canada for approval, Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force’s medical lead said the province will be ready to administer vaccines to the age group.

“They’re signalling [approval] could occur in the very near future,” Dr. Joss Reimer said on Monday’s media conference.

Reimer said it was encouraging to see antibody levels and immune responses were similar to older age groups, despite using a lower dosage of the Pfizer vaccine. She added while Pfizer hasn’t provided specific data, there haven’t been any safety concerns beyond previous trials.

Health Canada has already approved the Pfizer vaccine for teenagers as young as 12.

“We’re planning to be ready in the case they do approve it in the very near future,” Reimer said.

Reimer said the task force is looking at different options in order to provide that dose upon approval, which could include school-based immunizations.

“Schools are absolutely one of the things we’re looking at as we get to younger kids,” Reimer said. “It can be a bit more challenging to offer immunizations in schools, so we’re trying to work through some of the logistics.”

Reimer said the task force is working with schools and public health teams to determine if it is feasible to have parents could accompany children when they receive their vaccines. She said they are also looking at alternative settings.

“Regardless of whether or not we offer it in schools, we will still have medical clinics, our pharmacies, and, in more remote settings, our public health teams would be offering the vaccine to younger children once it’s improved,” Reimer said.

Reimer said the province ran a vaccine clinic in a Northern Health Region school last week and said it went well. She added around 20 schools in the province will run vaccine clinics this week, but didn’t specify where.

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