On Saturday, June 18, CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended the use of COVID-19 vaccine for patients ages 6 months-4 years (Pfizer-BioNTech) and ages 6 months-5 years (Moderna). See the CDC statement. These recommendations are in line with FDA’s Emergency Use Authorizations of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for this age group. We encourage you to make these vaccines available to children under 5 as soon as possible.

For health centers in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program that pre-ordered the pediatric Pfizer-BioNTech and/or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine:

• If your pre-order was submitted by Monday, June 6: Deliveries are estimated to begin arriving today, Monday, June 20 through Friday, June 24.
• If your pre-order was submitted by Wednesday, June 8: Deliveries are estimated to begin arriving Thursday, June 23 through Wednesday, June 29.

Going forward, ordering will follow the vaccine program’s weekly cadence. Health centers may place their next vaccine orders for any age group in the Health Partner Order Portal (HPoP) until Wednesday, June 22 at 11:59 p.m. local time.

If your health center has not yet participated in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program or wants to renew participation and is not sure how to do that, please use the BPHC Contact Form to let us know. Under the COVID-19 section click “View More” to select the “COVID-19 Vaccine Program” option.

Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination Resources

The following resources are available to help health centers implement the recommendation:

• CDC’s Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination Operational Planning Guide (updated Thursday, June 2)
• CDC’s COVID-19 Vaccination for Children website
• CDC’s Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines – Check this page for updates.
• Checklist for Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination for health centers.

Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program Survey Reminders

Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program participants are required to complete the bi-weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey and addendum questions. Participating health centers are also required to enter vaccine stock on hand (SOH) into the vaccine module within HPoP weekly. If your health center’s ordering permissions have been disabled for not entering vaccine SOH or not completing the bi-weekly survey, please complete these tasks as soon as possible so that you are able to order vaccines each week.