Health Officials Push For Oklahoma Children To Get COVID Vaccine Before Schools Starts

It's been almost a month since the CDC approved COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 5, but they said few have received the shot. 

Wednesday, July 13th 2022, 4:18 pm



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It's been almost a month since the CDC approved COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 5, but they said few have received the shot. 

The CDC said only 0.5% of kids under five have been vaccinated here in Oklahoma. That comes out to less than 2,000 kids.  

With school right around the corner, the Oklahoma City County Health Department said kids are keeping them pretty busy, something they haven't experienced in years. 

“Now that we're starting to come out of the pandemic, we're going to hopefully be able to get caught up with kids,” Stacee Hoye said. 

Although offices are full of kids preparing for school, there aren't many kids under 5 getting vaccinated for COVID-19. In Oklahoma County it’s under 500 kids. 

“The uptake has been lackluster. We need people to advantage of it and utilize it to protect their kids,” Phil Maytubby said. 

OCCHD started offering the vaccine to children six months and older about a month ago. Phil Maytubby said this is enough time to encourage parents to look into this before the end of summer break. 

“The kids have been a gap because they haven’t had vaccine available. That’s why we had so much disruption with daycares and with schools,” Maytubby said. 

Maytubby said cases and hospitalizations are on the rise here in Oklahoma. He encourages families to look into safety precautions. 

“We’ve been through this before a couple of times. Nothing is going to be different, we’re going to have disruption, because either the kids are going to be sick and guess what if the kids are sick the people have to stay home,” Maytubby said. 

Appointments for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are available on the State Health Department's website. 

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