KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Children ages 5 to 11 now are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in Missouri, the state health department announced Wednesday.
Missouri adopted the same recommendations for pediatric vaccination as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gave the final go-ahead Tuesday.
Missouri has 116,100 initial doses of Pfizer's pediatric coronavirus vaccine, health department spokeswoman Lisa Cox said. That's enough for roughly 22% of the state's more than 533,000 newly eligible children.
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Director Donald Kauerauf in a statement said while it's less common for COVID-19 to severely sicken children, they can unknowingly spread the virus to high-risk groups.
He urged parents to talk to their pediatrician or another trusted doctor about vaccinating their children.
"It is important to make an informed decision based on factual, scientific information, not what is available in a social media feed," Kauerauf said.
