Gov. Charlie Baker en-route to a press briefing on COVID-19 shots for children ages 5-11 in the Commonwealth, with Dr. Frinny Polanco Walters of Boston Children's Hospital. Photo: Suzanne Sausville/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Governor Charlie Baker announced the Commonwealth's plan to vaccinate kids ages five to 11 for COVID at a press conference from Boston Children's Hospital on Thursday.
The CDC gave its green light to the Pfizer COVID vaccine for use on young children on Tuesday. The vaccine is administered in two doses, but only contains about a third of the dose that the adult vaccine has.
Governor Baker said vaccines started being shipped to Massachusetts last week after the FDA gave emergency authorization for the vaccine. Over 500 locations will start offering the vaccines for kids, including pediatrician's offices, hospitals, community health centers, and pharmacies.
"With this mixed model of providers, nearly every Massachusetts child lives within 30 minutes of a vaccine clinic," Baker said.
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Boston Children's Hospital will begin vaccinating kids ages five to 11. The governor said he expects there to be no supply issues with the pediatric vaccine. He said more doses will be coming to the state.
"We don't anticipate any supply issues which as we all know back at the very beginning of this were a significant concern," Baker said.
Baker said the state has reached out to all local boards of health and municipalities to help coordinate the vaccination process with them and provide the necessary doses. He encouraged any municipality that had not responded to reach out to them to help set up vaccination clinics.
WBZ's Suzanne Sausville (@wbzSausville) reports.
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