Roxanna Miranda/The Rider Graphic
UT Health RGV has begun distributing the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 5 to 11.
In a campuswide email sent by UT Health RGV on Oct. 4, it was announced that “following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation, UT Health RGV will now offer pediatric doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech (Pfizer) COVID-19 vaccine to children aged 5-11, starting Friday, November 5.”
As of last Friday, about 200 children had been vaccinated at UTRGV, according to Dr. Michael Dobbs, chief medical officer for UT Health RGV.
The university did not anticipate a high demand for vaccines due to vaccine availability in local pharmacies throughout the region.
“I’m glad that we’ve had a couple hundred, and I just hope that those children that aren’t getting vaccinated with us are getting vaccinated somewhere else,” Dobbs said.
Parents or guardians of children ages 5 and up can schedule an appointment for themselves and their child at https://uthealthrgv.org/vaccine/.
Also on the vaccine front on campus, UT Health RGV had administered 46,013 tests and 86,373 vaccine doses, as of last Thursday.
UTRGV also reported one additional COVID-19 case between Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, raising the school’s total to 566, according to Doug Arney, vice president for Administrative Support Services and chair of the Infectious Disease Committee at UTRGV.
In other COVID-19-related news, Cameron and Hidalgo counties continue to see steady trends in cases.
Hidalgo County reported an additional 101 confirmed cases last Wednesday, raising its total to 118,390, according to its website.
As of last Wednesday, the county reported three additional COVID-19-related deaths, raising its total to 3,478. All three individuals were unvaccinated.
Last Wednesday, Cameron County Public Health reported an additional 14 COVID-19 cases, raising its total to 53,645.
No deaths were reported in Cameron County last Wednesday.
