SEARHC vaccination clinic for children Thursday

Wrangell’s first clinic for children ages 5 through 11 to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is set for Thursday at the Wrangell Medical Center.

Additional clinics will be scheduled.

Parents and guardians can register online at searhc.org, or call the medical center at 907-874-7000 for more information.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week approved the Pfizer vaccine for young children.

“Vaccines will be available by appointment, and a parent or caregiver must accompany the youth,” Maegan Bosak, a senior SEARHC official in Sitka, said last week. The vaccine for younger children requires two shots, administered three weeks apart, the same as teens and adults, though at a much lower dose than for older children and adults.

As of Monday, the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, which operates in 19 communities, had administered 33,435 COVID vaccinations, according to its website.

In Wrangell, 1,271 people, about 60% of the eligible population, had received both doses as of Monday, with booster shots going into the arms of 171 people, according to SEARHC.