COVID-19 vaccines for kids under 5 to start in Inland Empire on Wednesday

Riverside and San Bernardino county health officials will start administering shots of the COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5 beginning next week, but Kaiser Permanente will begin the inoculations Wednesday, June 22.

Kaiser Permanente Southern California will start giving shots to newly-eligible children under 5 at all 15 of its medical centers and some pediatrics departments in the region, Maria Disalvo, COVID-19 and flu vaccine lead with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, said Tuesday, June 21.

Riverside County’s public health department will take appointments on its website for pediatric vaccines against the coronavirus “sometime next week” spokesperson Jose Arballo Jr. said Tuesday by email. A specific date was not announced.

“Pharmacies will be able to assist with vaccinating many children in this new age group, though (they) cannot vaccinate children 2 or younger without particular partnerships with an additional medical provider,” Arballo said.

Parents interested in the vaccination at a pharmacy should call ahead to ensure it’s available, he said.

San Bernardino County spokesperson David Wert said by email that the county is anticipating delivery “this week” for the new Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Appointments will be available at an unspecified date next week.

“Once the vaccines are received, they will be made available to the public, which is expected to start early next week,” Wert said.

In Los Angeles County, health officials had said they could begin offering the vaccine to children as soon as Tuesday, June 21, but shipping issues caused delays. The shots weren’t expected to be more widely available until at least Wednesday, officials said.

Over the weekend, a panel of advisers for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended and approved giving the vaccines to children as young as 6 months old, a news release states. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off Saturday, June 18.

San Bernardino County’s COVID-19 pediatric webpage will be updated once vaccines are received, and appointments will be available online. Residents may also call the County Health Centers at 1-800-722-4777.

Parents who have Kaiser could start booking appointments Tuesday, June 21, by calling 888-574-2273, or going online.

Kaiser will offer the Pfizer vaccine starting Wednesday, officials said. The Moderna vaccine will be available Tuesday, June 28.

UC Riverside biomedical sciences professor Dr. David Lo said Tuesday in a news release that the vaccines work the same way for adults and children.

“Within the first 18 months after birth, the CDC recommends at least 25 separate vaccine injections, and these vaccinations are aimed at protecting against a range of infectious diseases, including both bacterial and viral infections,” Lo said in the release. “So the addition of two COVID-19 vaccine shots is not a major addition. The side effects are very familiar to parents with small children: soreness at the injection site, low-grade fever, and so on. The COVID vaccine has been no different.”

City News Service contributed to this report.