State health department adopts CDC’s recommendation for children vaccines

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ.)

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services adopted the CDC's recommendation Wednesday regarding Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children.

According to the CDC, starting Nov. 8 children between the ages of 5 and 11 are eligible for a low dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination. Experts say the vaccine for children is about a third of the dose given to those over the age of 12.

This means more than five hundred thousand children in Missouri are now eligible to receive a vaccine.

In Missouri, Schnucks CVS pharmacy will offer the COVID-19 vaccination. Hy-Vee also announced it will offer Pfizer vaccinations for youth but only to selected stores.

Columbia Hy-Vee stores are still waiting for supplies. Many pharmacies ABC 17 News spoke to said they have not yet received their shipments of the Pfizer vaccinations.

Director of communications at Hy-Vee Christina Gayman said, "At this point, we're just waiting to receive the shipments, so it could be in the next day... it could be a couple of days."

Gayman said the store does not anticipate any issues with getting enough of the Pfizer pediatric doses.

"As we use vaccines we can order more. So, I can see us having a consistent supply of that vaccine when we receive that first shipment." Gayman said.

Just like the adult vaccine, children will also need two doses. Children must also remain on site to make sure they don't have a reaction to the dose.

"The waiting period you know... that's not going to be fun for them either but our pharmacies are working hard to you know have stickers and certain treats while they're waiting during that time frame," Gayman said

The Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services said on Twitter, "We'll be doing school-based COVID vaccinations starting the week of Nov. 15".

Vaccine availability will depend on supply and the state updating orders which some of the pharmacies operate under.

To find providers who have preordered their vaccines you can visit, MOStopsCovid.com. Toward the end of the week, Vaccines.gov will list locations that will have Pfizer's pediatric vaccines.