Canada starts vaccinating children under-12 against Covid
MONTREAL: Canada began immunising children aged 5-11 against Covid-19 Wednesday, joining a handful of nations including Israel and the United States in offering shots to this age group.
At Montreal’s convention centre, a few dozen youngsters were among the first to receive the Pfizer doses authorised since last Friday for this age group.
To help ease their fears of needles, additional measures have been taken such posting stickers of unicorns or hockey players on partitions between nursing stations, longer appointments than for adults, and a dog to pet.
“I was not really scared, but I was stressed,” Victor, 10, told AFP, gripping a colouring page with the words ‘bravo, you received your vaccine’ in his hands.
At his side, his mother Mathilde explains that he felt ‘excluded’ from his family, being the only one who had not yet been vaccinated against Covid-19.
For her, having her son vaccinated made sense, if only to ‘be together’ and ‘be able to hug her grandparents’ without fear.
“We are privileged, frankly,” added Yanouchka Labrousse, a doctor and mother of two vaccinated children.
Appointments for children in Quebec have been spiking since the government gave the green light to paediatric vaccination, ‘which is an indicator that the response of the population is really excellent,’ commented Jean-Nicolas Aube, spokesperson for the Montreal health authorities.
On Twitter, Quebec Premier Francois Legault was delighted Wednesday morning to note that 115,300 appointments were made in a few hours.
“It is together that we can make a difference!” he said.
In neighbouring Ontario, a handful of children were vaccinated Tuesday in Toronto due to an early delivery of doses. Canada’s most populous province is set to officially begin its campaign on Thursday. — AFP
A nurse takes care of a Covid-19 patient in a so-called Rotational Bed at the Covid-19 intensive care unit of the community hospital (Klinikum Magdeburg) in Magdeburg, eastern Germany.