Parents Can Now Get Children as Young as 6 Months Old Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Pediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 6 months old are expected to be available at locations around Los Angeles County on Tuesday, while in Pasadena the city’s Public Health Department announced it will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5 years during the first week of July.

Community members interested in earlier appointments can visit MyTurn.ca.gov for availability, a city spokesperson said.

The Los Angeles County Health Dept. was expected to begin administering the pediatric doses Tuesday.

Pharmacy retailer CVS also said its MinuteClinics are prepared to start vaccinating young children Tuesday.

“We’ll begin administering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for eligible children 18 months through four years of age at our 1,100 MinuteClinic locations starting on Tuesday (6/21). Appointments will be made available at MinuteClinic.com as locations receive supply,” CVS said in a statement.

MinuteClinics accept patients as young as 18-months-old. If your child is younger, you can go to your pediatrician, a children’s hospital or a county vaccination site.

Federal authorities approved the doses for kids under age 5 over the weekend.

The approval applies to vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer- BioNTech.

County health officials noted that young children are considered at lower risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID, but they said the risk is higher among unvaccinated children. They also contend that unvaccinated children are at higher risk of developing Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C.

According to the county, over the past three months, unvaccinated children aged 12-17 were nearly four times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than vaccinated children. Among vaccine-eligible children in the county who contracted confirmed cases of MIS-C, 65% were unvaccinated, officials said.