Mayor hopes to begin 5 to 11-year-old vaccinations by beginning of December

TORONTO — Toronto Mayor John Tory says he hopes the city will be able to begin vaccinating five to 11-year-olds against COVID-19 by the beginning of next month. However, the rollout isn't happening as quickly as he would have liked.

"We had hoped that the approvals would be forthcoming in time for us to have some fairly sort of large and widespread activities that lead to child vaccination by even as early as next week," Tory told reporters Monday morning.

He says he is hopeful they'll be able to get underway in a couple of weeks.

Health Canada is currently reviewing the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for the younger age group. On Friday, chief medical adviser Dr. Supriya Sharma said a decision would come, "in the next one to two weeks."

The city has said there are more than 200,000 eligible five to 11-year-olds in Toronto.

Last week, officials released a plan to vaccinate this age group which includes City-run immunization clinics, school-based clinics, hospital and community-based clinics, more than 450 pharmacies and some pediatric and family physician practices.

"The good news for us in the city of Toronto is we have a very robust plan that has been put together that is going to focus on accessibility, it's going to focus on equity," Tory said Monday.

Public Health identified 30 neighbourhoods for the initial school-based clinics, based on COVID-19 case rates, income, crowding in homes and the proportion of racialized individuals.

"It's going to focus on fun," Tory said. "Because with kids, we are spending as much time focusing on how to keep them distracted and on education and consultation."

Last week, he said children's clinics will include, "superhero selfie stations to make the experience fun and comfortable for kids."

With files from The Canadian Press