Toronto calls in the superheroes to help with vaccinating young children against COVID-19
Toronto is preparing to hand out free vaccines at children’s schools this week, in an attempt to immunize students against the coronavirus.
The first round of free vaccines will be offered to students in Toronto District School Board Schools from 11 a.m. Tuesday to 4 p.m. Friday at their respective locations across the city.
Toronto Public Health is working with the Toronto District School Board to distribute the vaccines to children from kindergarten through Grade 8 at 100 schools.
The vaccines will contain a combination of inactivated and live flu and coronavirus vaccines.
Toronto Public Health is asking teachers to check with their students whether they’d like to be vaccinated, and if they choose to be vaccinated they’ll have to sign a consent form and receive a letter from their health care provider.
The Toronto District School Board says the vaccines will be free to students.
Coronavirus Vaccine Trial in Toronto to Begin This Week
Toronto Public Health says the vaccines are being distributed in a “controlled, randomized and blinded” trial to children in Toronto schools.
On Thursday, the public health unit announced it was creating a new task force to evaluate safety, effectiveness and feasibility of the vaccines.
The trial was approved by the Ontario Superior Court on March 16, on the basis that children can be vaccinated under the province’s emergency powers granted under the Public Health Act.
In order to be eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19, children must be between the ages of 12 and 17, and either a member of a same-sex household or not be single.
Toronto Public Health says it will offer more details on how to sign up for vaccines and what to expect this week.
The vaccines will be available in several rounds, the first round of 10 shots consisting of five doses of each vaccine, followed by five rounds of 10 shots, totalling 50 doses.
The vaccines will be available for distribution
