Number of vaccinated 5 to 11-year-old kids in NYC reaches 82,000

Roughly 82,000 children between the ages of five and 11 are at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Friday.

In late October, children ages five to 11 became the most recent age group approved for the COVID-19 vaccine with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization for the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech’s pediatric COVID-19 on children in that age range.

The dosage of Pfizer-BioNTech’s pediatric vaccine is one-third the amount used on adults but with a similar efficacy rate, according to both drug companies, administered in two doses about three weeks apart. Shortly afterward, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccine for younger children.

In order to boost vaccination rates among New York City children, City officials began offering the vaccine to younger children at city-run vaccination sites and launched temporary vaccinations sites at all public schools serving children between the ages of five and 11. In the first two weeks that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been available to children as young as five, 12% of the entire age group has gotten at least their first dose of the vaccine.

That number places the City’s vaccination rate among five to 11-year-old kids slightly higher than the national rate of 10%, according to White House officials.

Mayor de Blasio broke the news during an interview on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” Friday morning and also announced health officials would return to more public schools for a second time on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

“So many folks have been doing this out in our schools, to vaccinate our kids at school buildings has been really, really successful,” de Blasio told the show’s host Brian Lehrer. “We’re out in school buildings last two weeks, at charter schools today, as well, going back to more schools.”