The COVID-19 vaccine for the 5-11 age range is coming to Onondaga County, now that a lower dose of the Pfizer vaccine has been approved.
The county is setting up clinics to hold these specific doses for the younger age group, which will begin Saturday, according to Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon.
The first will be held for Syracuse City School students only at ITC Saturday morning.
All appointments for Saturday have already been filled. SCSD sent out a registration link to families with eligible children. You can register here.
The county is working with pharmacies, pediatrician offices and school districts to distribute vaccines and hold clinics.
Three more clinics at ITC are scheduled for Syracuse City School District students from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and next Friday. McMahon says by next week all districts should have their clinic’s schedule.
“We will be doing school-based clinics, we will be doing appointments at Wegmans and Kinney Drugs. They don’t have it today, or appointments ready at the pharmacies, but they will be an option,” said McMahon.
Districts already slated to have clinics include ESM, Onondaga Central, Lafayette, Marcellus, FM, Tully, Jamesville-DeWitt, North Syracuse, West Genesee, Liverpool, Baldwinsville, All Saints and the Montessor School.
Of 9,449 surveys sent to Onondaga County parents of 5 to 11-year-olds, 53.7% indicated they plan to get their kids vaccinated as quickly as possible, with 81% of those parents wishing to speak to their child’s pediatrician beforehand.
“People were thinking about 30% of parents would get their children vaccinated. It looks from our data, that it’s probably going to be higher than that in our community,” McMahon said.
The survey also broke down where parents would perfer their child be vaccinated, with 72% responding they would prefer to take their child to the pediatrician’s office, 50% to school-based clinics, 38% to local pharmacies and 14% by means of community clinics.
“We have a lot of vaccines to get us started, more than we have the infrastructure to implement. We’ll have enough vaccine to get this done, it’s just going to take a couple of weeks,” said McMahon.
He anticipates the clinics will be able to vaccine 150 to 250 people each day, and more districts will come forward to coordinate clinics with the county.
Guardians or parents are required to be present during innoculations.
