The head of Manitoba's Vaccine Implementation Task Force says Manitoba could be a month away from five-year-olds being eligible to roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Joss Reimer says Pfizer announced this week that it has officially requested Health Canada approve the vaccine for children aged five to 11. She notes Health Canada will only authorize the use of this vaccine if their independent and thorough scientific review of all data shows that the vaccine is both safe and effective in this age group. This vaccine is being marketed under the name, Comirnaty.

Dr. Reimer notes her team has been preparing for this for quite some time, suggesting they are planning for approval to be granted soon.

"So we can anticipate that it will be at least two weeks, but probably longer than that, for Health Canada to review all of the data to make sure that this is a safe and effective option for younger Canadians," says Dr. Reimer. "So we're planning for being ready by the end of November."

However, she stresses this is only an estimate, noting there is no way to know how long Health Canada will take to complete the approval process. Dr. Reimer says Manitoba plans to use a variety of options for vaccine rollout, including schools, physician clinics, pharmacies and public health clinics.

According to Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin, even if Health Canada approves Pfizer's request, Manitoba does not plan to remove the exemption in its public health orders for those under the age of 12.

Dr. Reimer says this week's announcement by Pfizer is an important development for Manitobans. She says achieving high vaccination rates in adults and children is key to controlling the spread of the virus. 

Since September 7th, there have been 390 student cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba.

"We are certainly optimistic that as we can open up eligibility to this group that that will have a major impact on the number of cases in Manitobans going forward," adds Reimer.

According to public health officials, there were 51 new cases of COVID-19 announced Wednesday in Manitoba. Twelve of those 51 Manitobans are fully vaccinated, or about 24 per cent of Wednesday's cases.