Essex County Is Ready To Give COVID Vaccines To Kids Under 5: Official – Patch
ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Essex County is prepared to administer coronavirus vaccines for children under 5 if federal officials grant final approval, an official said Thursday.
An advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously on Wednesday to recommend the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children 6-months and older – the only Americans still not eligible for COVID vaccines, The New York Times reported.
The FDA appears ready to give emergency use authorization to both vaccines as soon as Friday, The Times reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would then decide whether to formally recommend the vaccines.
SHOTS IN ESSEX COUNTY: WHEN, WHERE?
If federal approval is granted, Essex County is ready to roll next week, according to its county executive.
Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. told Patch that if shots for kids under 5 are approved, the county will offer them at its vaccine site in the Sears building at the Livingston Mall.
If the vaccines are approved Tuesday – as many expect – Essex County would begin offering them Thursday, Friday and Saturday, DiVincenzo said.
“We’re going to urge people to make appointments,” the county executive said.
The county will also offer vaccines for kids under 5 at its mobile vaccine clinics, which visit East Orange, Irvington, Newark and Orange, he said.
While Essex County can’t give out any shots until federal officials give the green light, it has begun training its nurses to give vaccines to the county’s youngest residents in attempt to prepare, DiVincenzo said.
So far, Essex County has offered every variety of approved vaccine at its centers and mobile sites – which it will continue to do, DiVincenzo added. But whether the demand that accompanied the first frenzied stages of vaccine distribution will continue remains to be seen.
“It’s going to work out, but to give it a number, I don’t know … we’ll see,” DiVincenzo told Patch, pointing out that local doctor’s offices and pharmacies will also be giving shots to kids under 5 once federal approval takes place.
At the peak of the pandemic, the county ran five vaccine centers in Livingston (at the former Sears building in the Livingston Mall), Newark (at Essex County College and the Donald M. Payne Sr. School of Technology), West Caldwell (at Essex County West Caldwell School of Technology) and West Orange (at the former Kmart building on Prospect Avenue).
As more Essex County residents got vaccinated and more places began giving shots, reducing demand, the county has closed some of these centers. Currently, the only one open is the site at the Sears building at the Livingston Mall, 112 Eisenhower Parkway. It is currently providing COVID-19 vaccines and tests at no cost from 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.