Ontario opens COVID vaccine booking portal for kids appointments

Parents in Ontario can now book vaccine appointments for their children aged five to 11 to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

The provincial booking system was supposed to open at 8 a.m on Tuesday. but some parents were able to log on before 7 a.m.

Health Minister Christine Elliott said that more than 68,000 appointments had been booked before 10 a.m.

“Ontario is receiving over a million doses of the pediatric vaccine from the federal government,” said Elliott, speaking from Queen’s Park on Tuesday. “Throughout the week doses will immediately be shipped to public health units, pharmacies and primary care settings across the province.”

The province said appointments are expected to begin as early as Thursday, once the federal supply of the vaccine makes its way to public health units across the country.

Appointments can also be made through public health units that use their own booking system, participating pharmacies and select primary care providers.

To book an appointment online, children must be turning five years old by the end of 2021.

“Offering the protection of the vaccine to children aged five to 11 is a significant milestone in Ontario’s fight against COVID-19 in advance of the holiday season,” Elliott said in a release on Monday.

Health Canada approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in kids aged five to 11 on Friday and the first doses arrived at the airport in Hamilton on Sunday.

Ahead of the province’s announcement, City of Toronto officials said it will open approximately 20,000 appointments this week for kids in that age group between Nov. 25 and Dec. 5.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech say the results of their trials in children show comparable safety and efficacy results to those recorded in a previous study in adults aged 16 to 25.

The kids’ vaccine — a two-dose regimen of 10 micrograms– was approved with a three-week interval between doses, but the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has suggested at least eight weeks between doses. Evidence has shown that a longer interval between doses increases the efficacy of the drug, and may even reduce the risk of rare side-effects like inflammation of the heart.

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With files from John Marchesan and Michael Ranger of CityNews, and The Canadian Press