Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12 and up on Wednesday, prompting Alberta to announce it would offer the shot to kids in that age bracket as the province combats a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The vaccine announcement comes after a promising trial out of the United States, which Health Canada's chief medical adviser said shows the vaccine is both safe and effective for kids in that age group.
"It will also support the return to a more normal life for our children, who have had such a hard time over the past year," said Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada's chief medical adviser.
The shot had previously only been approved for those aged 16 and up.
The American trial of more than 2,200 youth between the ages of 12 and 15, which used the same size doses and two-dose requirement as the vaccine for adults, recorded no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids.
Sharma said about a fifth of all COVID-19 cases in Canada have occurred in kids and teens.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was the first to announce that starting on Monday, his hard-hit province would make vaccines available to everyone aged 12 and up, the day after high COVID-19 transmission rates forced the closure of schools in his province.
Kenney made a dinnertime announcement Tuesday saying that students would move to online learning starting Friday. The measure is set to last for two weeks.
Thousands of students in higher grades in Edmonton and Calgary have already been learning from home.
"I know this is a real disruption for both kids and parents, but with the current level of community spread, we have 80,000 staff who are in self-isolation, and we'll soon reach a point where many schools will not be able to operate," Kenney said.
Kenney also introduced tighter caps on outdoor gatherings and customer capacity in retail stores.
Meanwhile, public health officials and politicians alike were working to reassure Canadians about the safety of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after the National Advisory Committee on Immunization urged those who were not at high risk of COVID-19 infection or complications to wait for another shot.
But some officials said Canadians should not follow that advice.
"You know, what I say is that if your life is in danger, and you need to call 911, to get help to save your life, it does not matter if that call is made on an iPhone or a Samsung or even a flip phone," said Sharma, the Health Canada adviser. "It does what it is supposed to do."
New Brunswick health officials reported the province's first death of someone who developed a blood clot after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday, just hours after Alberta did the same.
"It is important to remember that the risks of dying or suffering other severe outcomes from COVID-19 remain far greater than the risk following AstraZeneca vaccine," said Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta's chief medical officer of health.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2021.
Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press