Eleven days after Health Canada approved a COVID-19 vaccine for infants and preschoolers, New Brunswick has yet to announce when it plans to open appointments for that age group.
In neighboring Quebec, vaccinations for children under five began on Monday, while some other provinces began offering doses last week.
In PEI, parents also started registering classes from Monday.
Nova Scotia announced its rollout plans on July 14, the same day Health Canada authorized Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine for children ages six months to five years in doses one-quarter the size of an adult injection. The reservation system in this province is expected to open in early August.
New Brunswick is “working to make the two-dose vaccine available,” said Department of Health spokesman Adam Bowie.
“Public Health and some participating community pharmacies will begin offering appointment-only clinics once plans are finalized,” he said in an emailed statement.
“We expect to have more to say very soon.”
Promised a month ago to be ready for deployment
New Brunswick’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, told CBC News a month ago that the province would be ready to release COVID-19 vaccines to children under five as soon as they are approved.
The province is “watching very closely,” she said, and “ready to act against those as they come forward.”
But as of Monday, the province’s COVID-19 website still says: “Currently, vaccines approved in Canada are not approved for individuals under 5 years of age.”
According to Sackville mother Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers, the province plans to provide the vaccines in August.
Pascoe-Deslauriers, who is anxious to vaccinate her three-year-old daughter and frustrated by the lack of public information about the planned rollout, wrote to Health Secretary Bruce Fitch, Russell and Public Health last Friday to ask.
At the time, the Department of Health responded to Pascoe-Deslauriers, saying: “We are currently working on implementation and will keep the public informed as we proceed. We will have details as we move forward, and we plan that starting in August, the COVID vaccines will be available for children six months to five years of age.
“Please note that the situation is volatile and information changes daily. We strongly encourage you to visit our dedicated COVID-19 website for the most up-to-date information.”
Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers, the mother of a three-year-old girl in Sackville, said the province should at least update its COVID-19 website to reflect that a vaccine has already been approved for children under five and indicate that appointments will will be available soon. (Submitted by Rachelle Pascoe-Deslauriers)
Pascoe-Deslauriers doesn’t understand what’s taking so long, “especially compared to other provinces,” and calls the government’s website’s outdated, inaccurate information about vaccine approval status “unacceptable,” noting the site “should be their number one point of contact for people.”
Although her daughter does not have any health problems that would put her at higher risk for COVID-19, she has elderly relatives she would like to visit.
“We want to protect other people as well as her. And that’s really important,” Pascoe-Deslauriers said.
“Her exposure through daycare is, you know, a big source of illness or bringing illness into our household, right? Because daycares and schools are for many parents, their families. So it’s really just about making sure everyone has all of the best protections available, especially since there are very few public health protections left.”
Children aged six months to five years will be offered a dose of Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine about one-quarter the size of that given to adults. (Garrett Barry/CBC)
New Brunswick plans to offer children ages six months to five years the vaccine with at least an eight-week interval between the first and second doses, according to a Department of Health spokesperson.
For all children in this age group who are moderately to severely immunocompromised, three doses are recommended, four to eight weeks apart, Bowie said.
The vaccine will initially be administered within 14 days after other vaccines, he added.
Officials with the New Brunswick Pharmacists Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Saskatchewan opened appointments for under-fives last week, Manitoba opened appointments on Monday, while Ontario is scheduled to open appointments on Thursday.
Appointments are also expected to begin in the Yukon this week and next week in British Columbia. In Nunavut, vaccinations were expected to be available as of last week.
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