Oklahoma health official: State ready for kids’ COVID shots

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma is ready to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to children aged 5-11 when final approval comes, a state health official said Tuesday.

About 130,000 vaccine doses for children are being shipped to Oklahoma in anticipation of its approval, Deputy Health Commissioner Buffy Heater said.

The Biden administration has said millions of vaccine doses are being assembled and shipped, pending its approval. A federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel was meeting to consider recommendations for administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to younger children.

The “million-dollar question,” Heater said, is when the state can administer the shots.

“Our hope is that by the end of this week we would have all those things in place to be able to begin giving shots,” Heater said.

Heater said about 375,000 Oklahoma children would be eligible for the vaccine.

Also Tuesday, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said he had asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to suspend a requirement that Oklahoma National Guard members receive the COVID-19 vaccination.

“We estimate that over 800 Oklahoma guardsmen have not and do not plan on receiving the COVID-19 vaccine,” Stitt said. That would be 10% of the state’s overall Guard force and would limit his ability to deploy troops during an emergency, he said.