With COVID vaccines nearing approval for youngest children, Kansas has pre-ordered 66,800 doses

Kansas public health officials order doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as they near approval for children younger than age 6 years.

Kansas public health officials have pre-ordered doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest of children in preparation for their approval, which may come later this month.

June 21 is the earliest parents would be able to get their youngest children vaccinated against the coronavirus disease as Pfizer and Moderna seek regulatory approval. In the meantime, federal public health officials are preparing for a vaccine rollout.

The federal government has 10 million doses available for pre-orders to states and other distribution partners, according to a White House press briefing with unidentified senior administration officials.

Kansas has pre-ordered 66,800 doses, said Kansas Department of Health and Environment spokesperson Matt Lara in a Monday email.

“If the vaccines receive full approval this week, it is expected that the vaccine will arrive in Kansas early next week and will be delivered to providers on Wednesday and Thursday,” Lara said.

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Gov. Laura Kelly told reporters on Monday that her administration is ready to roll out the vaccine.

“We will make sure that we get this to our pediatricians offices and to our clinics around the state and get our littlest ones vaccinated and safe,” Kelly said.

Youths in Kansas have lower vaccination rates than the general public, prompting health officials to emphasize pediatricians and primary care providers. The White House said they have learned from previous vaccination campaigns that public health should involve trusted people in the community.

“Our goals are twofold: to make sure that the product is available and to make sure that parents have the information that they need about the vaccines,” White House officials said.

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FDA and CDC will review child COVID vaccines

The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee meets Tuesday and Wednesday to review data submitted by Pfizer and Moderna. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will then have an advisory committee meet Friday and Saturday.

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“We’ll be able to vaccinate the 6-month to 5-year-olds, that one group that still does not have approval for for vaccines,” pediatrician Steve Lauer said during a June 3 media briefing by The University of Kansas Health System. “Our hope is that soon that comes through and we’re able to get that cohort vaccinated, which again is a large group of people.

“We just all need to be vaccinated to be protecting each other from the rise of new variants from COVID. So hopefully more good news soon on the vaccines for those youngest kids.”

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The Pfizer vaccine requires three doses for children ages 6 months to 5 years old. The Moderna vaccine is two shots for ages 6 months to 6 years old. The KDHE pre-ordered 33,400 doses of Pfizer and 33,400 doses of Moderna.

That puts Kansas ahead of some states that had yet to order any doses from the federal allotment. While 10 million doses are available in the initial wave, more will be available in coming weeks.

White House officials declined to publicly identify which states had yet to pre-order any doses, predicting that more states would place orders as they became aware of the process.

“We have those folks that do things on the first day anything opens, and we have those folks that wait until the last minute,” an unidentified official said last week.

More: White House lays out plans for distributing vaccines to youngest children

Youth vaccination rates lag

The initial wave of doses would not be enough for all eligible children to get a first dose. The KDHE’s population data show more than 185,000 children are in the infant to 4-year-old age group.

The KDHE’s COVID-19 statistics aren’t broken down into a 6-month to 5-year-old age group.

Case data show nearly 66,000 children in the infant to 9-year-old age group have tested positive for COVID-19 during the pandemic and six have died.

The latest federal health data for Kansas show the age group under 5 years old has a 15% test positivity rate. The state population as a whole has a case rate of 162 per 100,000 people per week, which is in the red zone. At least five children of unspecified ages were hospitalized with COVID-19 in the past week.

About 73% of the Kansas population has been vaccinated with at least one dose, with 62% fully vaccinated and 28% boosted.

But vaccination rates are lower among youths. The 12-17 age group has 62% with a first shot, 53% fully vaccinated and 12% boosted. The 5-11 age group is 31% vaccinated with a first dose and 25% fully vaccinated.

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Jason Tidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jtidd@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jason_Tidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas prepares Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5