Tom McLeod, an EMT with Metro West Ambulance, readies a second dose of the Moderna vaccine at a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Centennial Park in Woodburn, Ore. on Thursday, April 1, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Salem Health is now making online appointments for kids ages five to 11 to get a Covid vaccine.
The region’s largest health provider opened online appointment scheduling this week after giving a handful of pediatric vaccine doses at an event last week, Salem Health spokesperson Lisa Wood said. Kids don’t need to have a primary care doctor or have previous been seen in a Salem Health clinic to make an appointment.
The pediatric vaccine is made by Pfizer and is about half the dose of the adult vaccine. Kids require two shots to be fully vaccinated.
Wood said in an email it took several weeks from Oregon’s Nov. 3 approval of pediatric vaccines to get online appointments up and running because of “some complexities in building the electronic health record system for this patient population.” She said Salem Health, which is the region’s vaccine distribution hub, also prioritized getting vaccine doses for kids to other pediatric clinics in the area.
Pediatric vaccine appointments can now be scheduled at most Salem Health clinics, with limited walk-in appointments available at urgent care centers. Children can also get a shot at the Salem Health Edgewater clinic during a scheduled pediatric appointment.
Pediatric vaccines will also be available at mobile vaccine clinics in November, Wood said. Those include an event running through 6 p.m. Thursday at the Oregon State Fairgrounds, as well as in Independence, Woodburn and Dallas in the coming days. A full schedule is on the Salem Health website.
Wood said Salem Health expects to be able to administer about 1,500 vaccine doses to kids for the rest of November, and about 700 weekly in December.
To date, 1,955 kids in Marion County and 611 kids in Polk County have received at least one dose of Covid vaccine, according to Oregon Health Authority data.
-Rachel Alexander
