It’s been two weeks since COVID-19 vaccines first became available to kids age five to 11 in our region, and the first numbers on how many are getting the shots are now available.
It’s a different mood at COVID-19 vaccine clinics from what you would expect with kids getting shots. The kids are among the last in the family to get that protection.
“The kids are excited,” Ballad Health chief infection prevention officer Jamie Swift said. “I got a lot of thumbs up and hugs. They’re just really excited to take that next step in the pandemic.”
Hundreds of kids in our region have now gotten the first of the two shots. But are enough families taking that step?
Health officials are seeing positive signs.
“We’ve had more pediatricians reaching out asking for vaccine, and we’ve been able to offer vaccine to everybody who’s asked for some,” Mount Rogers population health manager Breanne Forbes Hubbard said. “Those are some really good indicators to us.”
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About 4.4 percent of kids age 5 to 11 in Southwest Virginia have gotten the shot. That’s about a third of the statewide rate of 13 percent.
Four percent of Tennessee kids got a vaccine. The state doesn’t release local numbers for that group.
Health experts said it’s too soon to tell if these numbers are good or bad.
“People who have been anxiously waiting are going to come within that first week or two,” Swift said. “So we’ll really see in a couple weeks if we’re going to plateau off or if we’ll continue to see a high demand.”
News 5’s Caleb Perhne asked Forbes Hubbard, “Once they’re fully vaccinated, should they go to school without a mask?”
“Well, we’re still relying on the CDC for guidance on that,” she answered. “Because we do still have a high rate of transmission in our region and in our state, the guidance is still that they should be wearing a mask.”
It will be another month before the first kids are fully vaccinated.
Though COVID-19 spread in much of the South is now below the CDC threshold where vaccinated people should wear masks, spread is still high in our region.
But one thing parents won’t have to worry about: fully vaccinated kids don’t need to quarantine if they’re exposed and have no symptoms.