Pediatric COVID-19 vaccinations limited in area, more availability coming soon

Children ages 5 to 11 became eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations in Missouri on Wednesday. Though, it may be a while before parents can find shots for their children at nearby pharmacies and health centers.

According to a news release from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), distribution of over 116,000 pediatric doses began across the state earlier this week. It may take several days for the providers to receive vaccine doses, department officials stated. Several representatives of local vaccine providers said it will be even longer until the pediatric vaccine will be offered.

Jones Drug Store in Jackson will begin offering the pediatric vaccine in two weeks.

Abe Funk, co-owner of John's Pharmacy in Cape Girardeau, said John's has received 300 doses of the pediatric vaccine and will begin administering them from 2:30 to 5 p.m. Monday by appointment only.

ARRAY(0x56067435bdf8)

Walgreens and CVS both announced this week selected locations will begin providing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children over the weekend. As of presstime, confirmation on whether the chains' Cape Girardeau County locations will offer the pediatric vaccine has not been received by the Southeast Missourian after repeated calls to representatives.

Currently, the Pfizer- BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is the only vaccine approved for children by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 is a third of the dosage used for individuals 12 years and older, according to the DHSS.

The Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center only offers COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The health center doesn't provide Pfizer vaccines because of storage constraints, according to Autumn Grim, epidemiologist and assistant director of the health center.

The Pfizer vaccine has to be stored at lower temperatures and health care providers have a small window of time to use the vaccine before it expires, Grim said.

"There are quite a bit of constraints for us to be able to provide it [the Pfizer vaccine] currently, but we're evaluating to see if we'd be able to in the future," Grim said.

The Scott County Health Department's location in Sikeston, Missouri, offers Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, but plans have not been made to administer the Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children.

Diana Knutson, a nurse with Scott County Health Department, said department employees are working with Missouri Delta Medical Center to coordinate how many doses to order from the state so none get wasted.

"We don't have a time frame for when we're going to start, but we will probably have some doses sometime in the near future," Knutson said.

Vaccination events at Cape Girardeau School District and the Jackson School District schools have not been planned. A representative of Cape Girardeau School District said the district has been in contact with local pharmacies to schedule an event as soon as possible.