NJ To Start In-School Vaccine Clinics For Kids: Dept. Of Health

NEW JERSEY — Once the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is approved for children ages 5 to 11, school districts will have the option to open in-school vaccine clinics, the state Department of Health said this week.

The state of Pennsylvania already said it plans to similarly open in-school clinics.

It will be up to each individual school district to decide if they want to open a vaccine clinic in their schools, said Department of Health spokeswoman Donna Leusner. Gov. Phil Murphy has not announced any mandate that schoolchildren must get the coronavirus vaccine in order to attend school. Teachers and staff are mandated to be vaccinated or tested up to twice weekly.

"The Department of Health will work closely with participating school districts to identify vaccine providers equipped to administer doses in the school setting," she said.

As previously reported, the Food & Drug Administration is scheduled meet Oct. 26 to discus the Pfizer childhood vaccine trial results, and is widely expected to approve the Pfizer shot for kids by Halloween or early November. In anticipation of the decision, the White House is telling governors across the U.S. to start getting ready to get shots in kids' arms some time in early November.

Unlike with the adult vaccine, New Jersey parents can also expect their local pediatrician or family doctor to have the children's shot. The adult COVID-19 vaccines were not distributed to private doctors, and were instead given out at mass vaccine sites run by the government.

Leusner said the New Jersey Department of Health has been doing the following to prepare:

"Enrolling more family physicians/pediatricians as COVID-19 vaccine providers, working with schools to arrange for school clinics to administer vaccines, encouraging all federally qualified health centers to be COVID-19 vaccine providers, and educating physicians, parents and the public about the importance of children getting vaccinated," she said.

In-school vaccine clinics have already been tried in some places, mostly urban centers: After only 30 percent of Newark's eligible children 12+ had been vaccinated by mid-July, that city opened up in-school clinics when the school year began in September, according to NJ Spotlight. By the end of September, 55 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in Newark had gotten at least one shot, something the city credited to the in-school clinics.

Camden also had in-school vaccine clinics. In August, vaccine clinics opened at 13 Trenton school. And Saint Barnabas Medical Center and RWJBarnabas Health ran a vaccine clinic in the Livingston High School cafeteria on Aug. 30 (However, in all those three cases, school was not yet in session when the clinics were in operation.)

Leusner said the state of New Jersey has made vaccinating 12-17-year-olds "a priority," and spent the summer running vaccine clinics at schools or in school parking lots, in YMCAs, libraries, community pools, sports leagues, churches and hospitals.

"In Ocean County, there were pop-up clinics in regional high schools, at Six Flags and at other venues," she said.

The state of New Jersey seems keen to increase vaccination rates among children, which are lagging below state expectations. New Jersey has some of the highest vaccination rates among adults in the nation, with 75 percent of all NJ residents fully vaccinated.

However —

"Only 57 percent of New Jersey children ages 12-15 have received at least one dose," said New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli at the governor's press conference Wednesday. "We need to improve that."

Among 16- and 17-year-olds in New Jersey, 70 percent have received at least one dose, she said she was "pleased" to report.

"We hope to get that up to 80, 85 percent," she said.

"It's the 12-15-year-olds that are 57.1 percent vaccinated," said Persichilli. "We're working diligently with these schools and local officials in every municipality to identify those individuals and try to encourage them and their parents to line up and get a shot in the arm. Overall, I'm pleased where we're going with kids, but ... I wish the younger kids had higher levels of vaccination."

When asked how the would identify which children have not received a coronavirus vaccine, Leusner said the Dept. of Health monitors the state's covid19.nj.gov dashboard, which logs the number of children and adults vaccinated in each town. (For example, in Long Branch, 76 percent of 12-17-year-olds are fully vaccinated).

Hence, that dashboard shows the state where they need to increase vaccine encouragement efforts.

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