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ONTARIO: Kids born in 2017 ineligible for COVID-19 vaccine until their fifth birthday

A spokeswoman for Ontario's health minister says children born in 2017 will have to wait for their fifth birthday to be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
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TORONTO — A spokeswoman for Ontario's health minister says children born in 2017 will have to wait for their fifth birthday to be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Alexandra Hilkene says that guidance will remain in place for the time being.

It's a shift away from the rules that were in place when Pfizer-BioNTech's pediatric COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in kids aged five to 11 in Canada last month.

At that point, all kids born in 2016 or earlier were eligible for a shot in Ontario.

Last week, Ontario's Ministry of Health tweeted that anyone born in 2017 would be eligible for their vaccine starting at the beginning of January -- a tweet Hilkene said was published "in error" because the province had yet to make a decision on the matter.

Pfizer continues to test its vaccines for use in kids under the age of five, but reported last week that it was adding a third dose to the trials because the usual two shots didn't appear strong enough for some of the children.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 23, 2021.

The Canadian Press