Children 6 months and older could get a COVID-19 vaccine as early as this week in some parts of Wisconsin.
State health officials preordered 48,500 of its nearly 126,000 allotted doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which have already begun arriving, said Karen Timberlake, secretary of the state Department of Health, during a press call Tuesday.
The vaccines will be shipped directly to larger health care systems or go through smaller regional hubs, she said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorizations for Moderna’s vaccine to include children 6 months through 5 years of age, and Pfizer-BioNTech’s for children 6 months through 4 years of age.
On Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also signed off on vaccinations for children under 5. The new guidelines qualify nearly 300,000 children in the state for the vaccine, Timberlake said.
“It keeps them in school, summer activities, or childcare, as well as safely participating in sports, playdates and other group events,” Timberlake said.
As of Tuesday, about 62% of adolescents 12 to 17 and 28% of kids ages 5 to 11 got a dose of a COVID-19 vaccines statewide, according to DHS data.
Vaccine shipments on the way
The preordered doses are based on both supply and demand, Timberlake said. State health officials surveyed health care providers to determine how many estimated doses they would administer in the early weeks of the rollout to children 6 months and older.
With an allocation of just under 126,000 doses, Wisconsin health officials will place additional orders as the rollout continues, Timberlake said.
Children’s Wisconsin in Milwaukee expected its Pfizer doses to come in late Tuesday or Wednesday morning. Staff will begin administering vaccines to children 6 months and older Monday, said Smriti Khare, pediatrician and chief mental and behavioral health officer at Children’s Wisconsin.
That will give them time to set up appointments and provide the providers with trainings about administering the children’s vaccines.
In some Milwaukee health department clinics, vaccinations could be administered this week, Khare said.
In Green Bay, Bellin Health is waiting on its shipments to arrive and has not announced when parents will be able to make an appointment.
Young babies and toddlers already have well-child, regular checkups, prompting Khare to say it will be easier to get the newly eligible age group vaccinated, as their parents won’t have to bring them in for a separate appointment to get the COVID-19 shot.
RELATED:Wisconsin health officials recommend children 6 months and older get vaccinated against COVID-19
Most pharmacies will only administer shots to children 3 and older
While retail pharmacies played a large role in getting older age groups vaccinated, rollout will be focused more on pediatricians’ offices for the state’s youngest children.
That’s because most pharmacies, including Walgreens, will only be able to vaccinate children 3 or older, according to the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act — which prohibits pharmacies from administering a vaccine to a child under 3.
Parents should call ahead and confirm with their pharmacy.
The exception is CVS Pharmacy, which plans to administer COVID-19 vaccines to younger children — those ages 18 months and up — at its national network of 1,100 MinuteClinic locations.
That’s because MinuteClinics are made up of family nurse practitioners, physician associates, and nurses who have a background of giving vaccinations to children. The clinics also provide private exam rooms to make families more comfortable with getting a shot, said spokesperson Amy Thibault in an email to the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Tuesday. The PREP Act applies to pharmacists.
The best way to get an appointment as soon as possible is to first call your regular pediatrician or family doctor, Timberlake said. An updated list of vaccine sites will be found at www.vaccines.gov.
‘COVID is not risk-free for children’
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be given at a 3-microgram dose, which is one-tenth the size of the adult dose. Three doses will provide the same protection as seen in young adults after two doses, making it a three-dose vaccine for children.
The Moderna vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years is 25 micrograms, one-quarter of the adult dose. It will be followed by a 10-microgram booster.
While children are less likely than other groups to become seriously ill from COVID-19, they are not untouchable, Khare said.
According to the CDC, as of May 28, more than 400 between 0-4 years have died due to COVID.
Approval of the vaccines for children is a crucial step to combatting long COVID-19 and the possibility of developing multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, a condition that can cause inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, eyes and other organs, according to the CDC.
During the omicron variant surge, for instance, children were hospitalized at a rate five times higher than during the delta wave, according to DHS data.
The vaccines will also help kids return back to normal life as they may continue to face isolation or loneliness since the start of the pandemic.
“We had a mental health crisis before the pandemic. It’s worse now and anything we can do to get children better is very important,” Khare said. “…COVID is not risk-free for children.”
Contact Benita Mathew at bmathew@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @benita_mathew.
