Minister’s Statement on COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Ages 5 to 11

NOTE: The following is a statement from Health and Wellness Minister Michelle Thompson.

Today, I was pleased to hear that Health Canada has approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. At the same time, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has released its recommendations for use of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for this age group.

This is great news. Soon, we will be able to protect more Nova Scotians against the virus.

Nova Scotia relies on the guidance and recommendations of NACI in our vaccine rollout. Public health is reviewing the latest recommendations and how we adapt our vaccine rollout to support vaccination within this age group.

We have been anticipating this announcement for weeks and have been working with our health system partners and our vaccine booking system on a plan. We are now waiting on information from our federal partners regarding vaccine delivery to finalize our planning.

We look forward to sharing more information with families next week.