The time for our younger school-aged children to get a COVID Vaccine is finally here! Please see our Q and A video with answers to your questions about the vaccine.
As we have communicated, the first few weeks of vaccine distribution will be slower than we would all like due to supply of the vaccine. We are grateful for our close collaboration with the BRHD and have been working closely with them, school systems and other pediatricians for months to be ready for this rollout. We have started to call our patients to schedule them for our clinics and will begin vaccinating our highest risk patients on Saturday 11/6 and will have another clinic on 11/13. Remember to dress your child in short sleeves to make it easier, as often staying strapped in a car seat works best. We are still working through our sign up list (PAC COVID Vaccine Sign Up), and ask that you use this if you have not already done so.
This is a better way to get your information to us than calling. Our phone lines remain extremely busy and we prefer to manage vaccine appointments in this manner to keep our triage nurses available to give guidance for families with sick children.
Given limited supply to start, our priority is to protect the children at highest risk of the most significant complications of COVID. These are children with underlying medical conditions, Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Pacific Islander families, those in multi-family homes, and those who live with household members who are at higher risk, immunocompromised, or have public facing jobs.
If you are concerned that we might not know you have one of the high risk conditions listed above, feel free to send a message to us on the portal. If you don’t know how to get on the portal, you can go to our website charlottesvillepeds.com and click on patient portal on the top of the home page.
Finally, please pay attention the to information coming from the Blue Ridge Health District – there will be additional updates in the coming weeks about other ways to schedule a vaccine – including school based sites, the Community Vaccination Clinics and some pharmacies. We anticipate supply with increase around Thanksgiving.