May 6, 2021

Victoria — Children aged 12 and up will be eligible to receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, following Health Canada’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine for that age group. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry says that the province is working on integrating children in that age group into the vaccine rollout.

According to Dr. Henry, adding those aged 12 to 17 into the province’s vaccine rollout means another nearly 300 000 people to the vaccination pool. Despite this, she thinks the deadline for having at least one dose in the arm of every British Columbian wanting a vaccine by the end of June will remain on track.

“We’ll be balancing it with the second doses,” she said. “But 300,000 people is a week’s worth of vaccine right now. So, that’s the good news. We just need to figure out how to do that and maximize the protection as soon as we possibly can.”