COVID-19 vaccinations for kids 5-11 begin Monday in Iqaluit, shortly after in other Nunavut communities

COVID-19 vaccines for kids aged five to 11 in Iqaluit will start to be administered Nov. 29.

Nunavut Health Minister John Main said in a news release Friday the territory expects to receive enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine over the weekend to provide one dose for every eligible child in the territory.

The vaccines will be available by appointment at Iqaluit Public Health.

A parent or guardian will need to accompany the child to the appointment, to give consent for the vaccination.

A spokesperson for the Nunavut department of Health said the territory will send information on the availability of the vaccine in other communities "likely on Monday."

"It will depend on when, over the weekend, the vaccine arrives in the territory," wrote Chris Puglia.

15 per cent of the population

Main said about 15 per cent of the territory's population are children between the ages of five and 11.

"I encourage parents to have informed, meaningful conversations with their children and book appointments with their health centre as soon as the schedule is made available," he said.

The release said second doses will be scheduled approximately eight weeks after the first one.

Health Canada approved the vaccine for children in Canada on Nov. 19 and received its first shipment on Nov. 21.

"The vaccine has been safely administered to more than three million children around the world and has been shown to reduce the chance of serious illness and the spread of the virus to family members not eligible for vaccination," said Dr. Michael Patterson, Nunavut's chief public health officer.

According to the government of Nunavut COVID-19 website, there are no active cases of COVID-19 in the territory as of Nov. 26.