Alberta stagnates on vaccine plan for children under 5 years old

Alberta kids under five still aren’t able to book their COVID-19 vaccine, despite the doses already being in the province.

And with school resuming in September, the clock is ticking for kids to have vaccine protection in their back-to-school kit.

One mom of two preschoolers, Erin Joslin, talks about the urge to get their kids vaccinated.

“We’ve got children moving up from daycare into schooling and those parents obviously want those children to get a dose in and get their immunity built up,” said Joslin.

Joslin is a mom of two preschoolers and says parents would like to know what the plan is, as when it comes to young kids, showing up is half the battle.

Joslin adds there is the urge to get their kids vaccinated.

“Kids are a lot harder, what time of day are we doing those vaccinations, we need to take time off work to take those children,” said Joslin.

“I’m taking two kids I’m going to want a second parent with me to wrangle,” said Joslin.

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Alberta is the only province currently without a plan to get COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of kids under five but says a plan is on the way.

Other provinces in the country have opened bookings and appointments for those under five, and Alberta is now the only Canadian province without a plan in place.

Alberta Health says Thursday they have just under 47,000 doses available and expect additional doses in early August saying an announcement of the next steps will be coming in the next few days.

“I hope the vaccine will get us back to that point— where I feel comfortable to be like ‘okay, let’s go out, let’s do some stuff.’ As silly as it is, my kids love shopping because they’ve never been shopping.”