Pfizer Vaccine For Children 5 To 11-Years-Old Now Available In LA County

EAST LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Officials with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health touted the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11-years-old and some of the first kids to receive their vaccinations showed up Wednesday to a clinic at Eugene A. Obregon Park on 1st Street in East LA.

The vaccination clinic for qualifying kids comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended more than 28 million children get the shot of Pfizer's COVID vaccine.

Parents can start booking appointments through the California Department of Public Health website. Some national pharmacy chains have also started taking appointments as well.

County leaders said they anticipated there will be enough doses for everyone.

Families, on Wednesday, came from as far as Long Beach and El Monte to get their children the vaccine. Eiko Comfort is a nurse who has seen firsthand the effects of the pandemic. She brought her 10-year-old daughter Leah to the clinic.

"I'm 10-years-old and it was quick. She told me to count to three and it would be done, and it was like three seconds" Leah said.

"This means everything to me," Comfort, Leah's mom, said. "I've been working on COVID assignment forever and I've seen a lot of devastation. So, today this is our final child to get vaccinated and it's an amazing feeling to have that process get started.

Those doses for children are smaller, about a third of the size of the doses given to kids aged 12 and older, and there are an estimated 900,000 newly eligible kids in the county.

The plan, according to LA County leaders, is to have about 900 locations countywide that offer shots to this age group, and county leaders said using parks helps make the vaccine available to families that don't have transportation.