COVID-19 vaccinations for young children now expected to start later in the month
In this Thursday, March 23, 2020 photo, a small group of children stand outside their home in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. Vaccinations against the coronavirus will start being given out to children as young as 12 months old with health officials hoping to prevent thousands of families from having to flee their homes with little warning. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
MORGAN CITY, Texas – A small group of children stood outside their home in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, wondering where they should go after Monday’s mass gathering the day before that drew more than 1,000 people.
Most of them headed to the hospital where the city’s largest outbreak of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus is unfolding, said Dr. Michael McCauley, the health commissioner of the city of 20,000.
McCauley called the decision to start giving vaccines to 12-month-old children “disturbing.”
“We understand it’s a tough decision, but we’re going to give it a try,” he said Tuesday. “We don’t know yet whether we’re going to succeed.”
The first people to be vaccinated have been given the shot at a hospital in Boston’s sprawling Quincy Medical Center, where the number of people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus nearly doubled overnight, from 24 last night to 40 so far this morning.
In the meantime, the health department is giving the shot to the remaining children at a community health clinic in the city of Morgan City, less than 20 miles from Boston.
City residents have been told to stay away from the clinic and will not be asked to sign in, which is designed to prevent infection.
McCauley said Monday’s gathering outside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center drew a crowd that was larger than it could comfortably accommodate. That led the health department to cancel all events planned the next day.
The city’s decision to cancel and delay all large events came a day after hundreds of thousands of people were forced to cut their travel plans because of widespread disruptions to public transportation. In the three days since the city announced its decision, public transportation was restored to a few limited areas.
The delay also meant that there were no events to help prepare the city’s residents for the