OTTAWA – The federal government says it has no plans to enforce childhood vaccination requirements, as Health Canada gave Health Canada the green light for the first COVID-19 vaccine available to children aged 5 to 11 years old.
For now, Ottawa will not impose the same travel restrictions on children as it does on adults traveling in and out of the country, said Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.
“There are no changes to the vaccination or testing rules for children of all ages. As you said, we are currently fully focused on getting doses of Pfizer to the provinces and territories so we can start using the Pfizer vaccine as quickly as possible,” Duclos said in a statement. Interview with CTV’s Question Period airs on Sunday.
He stipulates that no one can predict “how the situation will turn out”.
On Friday, Health Canada authorized the use of two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children. The first batch of these children’s doses will arrive on Sunday, with a total of 2.9 million doses due to arrive by the end of next week.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), which makes recommendations to governments on the use of vaccines, has stated that children “can” be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.
“It is not uncommon for the beginning of any vaccine recommendation for the NACI to begin by saying ‘may be offered’ for a certain group of vaccines simply because of the information they have in front of them, and the scale of the trials for example,” said Canada’s Director of Public Health, Dr Theresa Tam at a news conference on Friday.
“But we expect NACI will continue to evaluate that information, and as with some adult recommendations, these may change over time.”
In its analysis, the NACI said that given the uncertainties surrounding childhood immunizations at this time, children and their parents and guardians should be respected when deciding whether or not to get vaccinated. no and “shouldn’t discriminate” in some way.
Moderna has also submitted their COVID-19 vaccine for Health Canada approval for use in children aged six to 11.
BOOSTER SHOES
Duclos said the government also does not intend to include COVID-19 booster shots in the mandatory vaccine requirements.
“Based on the public health guidance and knowledge we currently have, there is no need to change the rules around the definition of full immunization,” he said.
Health Canada has approved the use of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines as a booster shot in people 18 years of age and older to be given at least six months after the completion of the primary vaccine course. Provinces and territories have implemented their own filing rules.
CHANGE PCR TEST
In a later announcement, government officials announced that as of November 30, fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents returning home from a trip abroad of less than 72 hours will no longer be required to do so. provide evidence of a negative molecular test, such as a PCR test.
When asked why there is a three-day timeframe, Duclos said a shorter trip equates to less risk.
“Public Health Authority [of Canada] He assessed that those are very short trips, the risk of those people getting sick and bringing the virus back to Canada is very modest compared to other risks,” he said.
“Health Canada, Public Health Agency [of Canada], with border officials, will randomly test Canadians who leave less than three days to see if we should continue that policy or if we should modify it in the future. “
With files from CTV News ‘Rachel Aiello
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