Second dose appointments now available for Manitoba children

WINNIPEG -

Appointments for Manitoba children looking to get their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine can now be booked.

“You don’t need to wait,” Dr. Joss Reimer, Manitoba’s vaccine task force medical lead said on Wednesday. “You can book now to ensure your child gets his or her second dose at the eight week mark instead of after.”

Eight weeks is the minimum time recommended between first and second doses, though that number drops to three weeks for people living in First Nations.

“With the expected rapid rate of transmission with omicron, Manitoba students need to be fully vaccinated as soon as they are eligible to protect them, to protect their fellow classmates, their teachers, and the whole community when they go back to school in January,” Reimer said.

The province is reporting 55,426 first doses have been administered to kids aged five to 11, representing 44.3 per cent of Manitobans in that age group. Of those, 6,031 vaccine doses were administered in clinics at 114 schools across Manitoba in the first two weeks of December.

Dr. Reimer noted school-based clinics will close over the holidays with plans to reopen in January.

COVID-19 vaccine appointments can be booked at super-sites, clinics, and pharmacies across the province.