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2.7K Pfizer kid doses arriving Saturday
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Posted on Nov 04 2021
Over 2,000 pediatric doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine will be arriving this Saturday, Nov. 6, according to Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther L. Muña in a virtual news briefing yesterday.
Muña said the doses will be rolled out starting Saturday at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center “as quickly as possible.”
Muña said she and CHCC want to make the doses available to the community as soon as possible, and added that CHCC will be working on rollouts at other vaccination sites on Saipan and on Tinian and Rota.
“It will be pushed out to Tinian and Rota as well. …The reason why we want to roll it out on Saturday is [that] we already have it. We don’t want to wait until Monday, but we will probably need Monday to start distributing it to other sites. There [are] individual providers that are willing to be a part of the rolling out of these vaccines to the kids, and we’re going to get into that as well. We’re going to work on that on Monday,” she said.
The doses of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, like the adult version of the Pfizer vaccine, is a two-shot regimen. This would mean that, once completed, there should be over 1,300 fully-vaccinated children in this age group, but Muña assured that “CHCC will be getting more supplies as the days go by.”
On Oct. 29 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use in children aged 5 to 11. Up next was approval by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and on Nov. 2 the committee’s 14 members unanimously voted to approve the Pfizer vaccine for the age group. Later in the day, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky endorsed on Nov. 2 a recommendation to vaccinate children aged 5 to 11.
Saipan Tribune first reported last week that CHCC pre-ordered 2,700 pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine in anticipation of CDC approval, and also reported that, along with the vaccines itself, “ancillary supply kits such as needles, syringes, and other [personal protective equipment] for clinical staff to safely administer the vaccines” will be delivered to the CNMI.
