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CHARLESTON -- With the green light from federal officials possible as soon as next week, West Virginia officials on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic said they were ready to help administer vaccines to children ages 5-11.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer/BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine for use in children between the ages of 5 and 11.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet today and is expected to give its approval as well.
In a press briefing Monday, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said the administration is ready to start distribution of the vaccine next Monday with enough vaccine doses for all 28 million eligible children.
"As we await the CDC decision, we are not waiting on the operations and logistics. In fact, we've been preparing for weeks," Zients said. "On Friday, within minutes of FDA's authorization, we began the process of moving 15 million doses from Pfizer's freezers and facilities to distribution centers."
Zients said doses should start arriving at local pediatricians and family doctors' offices, pharmacies, children's hospitals, community health centers, rural health clinics and other locations this week. The White House is asking states, pharmacies and community health centers to submit the orders and distribution plans.
Speaking during Monday's West Virginia COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol, Joint Interagency Vaccine Task Force leader James Hoyer said the state requested 50,000 pediatric COVID-19 vaccines. With federal programs in place to also distribute pediatric doses to state pharmacies and healthcare programs, Hoyer said the state should be in good shape for supply.
"We are prepared to execute on providing doses to 5-to-11-year-olds," Hoyer said. "(The vaccines) are due to be coming in today and early tomorrow. Pharmacies have ordered, as well as other community health clinics that are able to order direct, so we anticipate as soon as the approval comes that we will start to execute on that."
Dr. Clay Marsh, the state coronavirus czar, said West Virginia continues to see a substantial number of new COVID-19 cases within the 5-11 age group. Vaccinations among those between the ages of 12-15 and 16-20 remain some of the lowest numbers among all ages groups.
"We hope that parents will choose to fully vaccinate their 5-to-11-year-old children," Marsh said. "That's really important to prevent the risk of long COVID, the uncommon risk that children may experience severe disease if they do get infected. Also to reduce the transmission and continue to reduce the risk for all West Virginians from developing COVID-19 and ending up in the hospital and, even more concerning, ending up on the list of names the Governor reads during every press briefing."
Gov. Jim Justice said there are 40 school outbreaks with 629 students in 18 counties who have COVID-19 infections. Justice encouraged parents to get their eligible children vaccinated.
"I urge all kids, especially in our schools. This thing can go through our schools like crazy. You may not even have any symptoms, but at the end of the day, if you were to get this it could possibly cause some long-lasting side effects that are not good. From the standpoint of our parents and grandparents, I urge them in every way to help me get these kids vaccinated."
Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.