This afternoon, the launch of the coronavirus vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 at the Urban Hub in Syracuse, where early adopters and their parents were welcomed by volunteers, turned into a celebratory moment for the district department of the Italian Red Cross, turned into Clowns for the occasion, in a colorful path of toys, candy, gadgets and balloons.
To agree to start vaccinating children at 13 dedicated pediatric vaccination centers across the county, the presence in the Hub on Nino Piccio Road was for ASP General Manager Salvatore Lucio Ficarra and Health Director Salvatore Madoña together to Director of Pediatrics at Umberto Hospital I in Syracuse Maria Assunta Vitale, to the center’s coordinators, psychologists, social workers in the URP, volunteers, nurses, hospitals and pediatricians in the field of regional vaccination are in service thanks to the agreement signed at the local level between the company and the class.
The Covid vaccine offers an important tool to protect children from the risks of serious diseases – General Manager Salvatore Lucio Ficarra said – We enthusiastically welcome the opportunity and willingness of parents to vaccinate their young. We thank the health workers, doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and computer scientists at all of our county vaccination centers, but above all, parents who without their consent cannot vaccinate children while there are already many of them, the first – reservations, which I understood the importance of protecting everyone, young and old.”
To date, the vaccination campaign from 12 years onwards has reached a Syracuse County vaccination rate of about 83 percent with the first dose, about 80 percent with the second dose and 14 percent with the third dose. Almost all of the population is eligible while almost everyone over their 80s are vaccinated at more than 90 percent. “We also take this opportunity to re-launch the call for mass vaccination because the more people vaccinate, the faster we will overcome this epidemic,” the Director-General added.
Children can access the vaccination through a dedicated path and reserved lanes through a reservation which must be made on the portal operated by Poste Italiane. “53 kids were booked on the first day, 36 of them were in the Syracuse center, and 170 were already booked through December 31. – We have created environments specifically for children with a welcome of clowns, background music, games and sweets that make this moment even more joyful and welcoming, explained Director of Health Salvatore Madoña. An initiative by the company’s management to humanize contact with children. We hope that bookings will increase because it has been shown that hospitalizations are decreasing while patients are often not immune.”
The vaccine for children 5 to 11 years of age is Kommernate (BioNTech/Pfizer), in the Aifa-approved specific formulation, at a dose reduced to about one third compared to a dose over 12 years old. A second dose, three weeks after the first.
The list of active children’s vaccination centers in Syracuse County is published in the “Children’s Covid 19 vaccination centers” section of the company’s website www.asp.sr.it.
