Health unit encouraged with youth vaccine rollout

Roughly 3,300 youth in Windsor-Essex between the ages of 5 and 11 have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Windsor-Essex County Health Unit CEO Nicole Dupuis says the vaccines were administered between Thursday and Sunday.

She says the health unit is pleased with the response and says the vaccines were administered at the mass vaccination clinic at Devonshire Mall.

They were also administered by local health care providers, pharmacies and community pop-up vaccination clinics.

Dupuis says the health unit is encouraged with the initial rollout.

"Approximately between Thursday and Sunday, we had about a little over 3,000 children between the ages of 5 to 11 receive their first dose," she continued. "So we think that's great and really encouraging for the first few days of our rollout and hope to see more."    

Dupuis says there are still additional booking times available at the mass vaccination clinic.

"I think probably for this age group, it requires a lot of planning on the part of parents so it's expected that maybe why we're seeing less on some days or some conversation and planning related to making sure that everybody is ready but I think we're encouraged to see our bookings," Dupuis said.      

She says every avenue available for the vaccine rollout is or will be available to youth between the ages five and 11.

"We will have clinics, our mobile clinics and five to 11 vaccinations will be part of that. We may have some that are more tailored to that age group in the next month or so, so expect to see that."    

The health unit says there are 33,000 youth between the ages of 5 and 11 in Windsor-Essex that are eligible to receive the vaccine.