Alberta's youth vaccination rate the lowest in Canada
Alberta continues to have the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates for children in the country, despite the surge of Omicron variant cases.
Child-sized doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11 years old were approved in Canada on Nov. 19, 2021. Appointments to dole out the doses in Alberta began days later on Nov. 24.
Alberta has 391,430 children in the five to 11 age group and, according to the province, 166,319 (42.5 per cent) have received at least their first dose while 24,010 (6.1 per cent) have had two shots.
Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping says a vaccine hesitancy committee has been established to investigate potential ways to improve vaccination rates in the five to 11 age group. Vaccine information has been sent directly to guardians and is also available online.
"We urge all parents to look at the information," said Copping on Monday, before confirming that Alberta is in line with its provincial counterparts. "Our approach is not that dissimilar from other provinces in terms of rolling out the vaccines."
The province has opened up vaccination sites throughout Alberta with extended hours, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., to accommodate the schedules of families as well as the desire of parents to accompany their children.
The numbers released by the government of Alberta vary slightly from those issued by the federal government, but both show Alberta trails other provinces in the percentage of children who have received their first dose.
Percentage of children (5-11) to receive their first dose as of Jan. 15
- B.C.: 47.4
- Alta.: 39.8
- Sask.: 50.4
- Man.: 52.7
- Ont.: 49.6
- Que.: 59.0
- N.L.: 74.7
- N.B.: 54.9
- N.S.: 64.1
- P.E.I.: 57.8
- Yukon: 53.9
- N.W.T.: 54.7
- Nvt.: 50.4
Percentage of children (5-11) considered fully vaccinated as of Jan. 15
- B.C.: 0.1
- Alta.: 5.2
- Sask.: 18.9
- Man.: 3.0
- Ont.: 6.6
- Que.: 4.2
- N.L.: 0.1
- N.B.: 3.2
- N.S.: 0.03
- P.E.I.: 0.0
- Yukon: 0.0
- N.W.T.: 0.0
- Nvt.: 0.1
With files from The Canadian Press.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
McDonald's to sell its Russian business, try to keep workers
More than three decades after it became the first American fast food restaurant to open in the Soviet Union, McDonald's said Monday that it has started the process of selling its business in Russia, another symbol of the country's increasing isolation over its war in Ukraine.

Ontario driver who killed woman and three daughters expected to be sentenced today
A driver who struck and killed a woman and her three young daughters in Brampton, Ont., nearly two years ago is set to be sentenced today.
White 'replacement theory' fuels racist attacks
A racist ideology seeping from the internet's fringes into the mainstream is being investigated as a motivating factor in the supermarket shooting that killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York. Most of the victims were Black.
'Hero' guard, church deacon among Buffalo shooting victims
Aaron Salter was one of 10 killed in an attack whose victims represented a cross-section of life in the predominantly Black neighbourhood in Buffalo, New York. They included a church deacon, a man at the store buying a birthday cake for his grandson and an 86-year-old who had just visited her husband at a nursing home.
Justice advocate David Milgaard remembered as champion for those who 'don't have a voice'
Justice advocate David Milgaard, a man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent more than two decades in prison, has died.
First patient in Quebec gets approval from Health Canada for magic mushroom therapy
In Montreal, a pioneering clinic in the emerging field of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is about to become the first health-care facility in Quebec to legally treat depression with psilocybin.
Total lunar eclipse creates dazzling 'blood moon'
The moon glowed red on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday, after a total lunar eclipse that saw the sun, Earth and moon form a straight line in the night sky.
Lacking vaccines, North Korea battles COVID with antibiotics, home remedies
The isolated state is one of only two countries yet to begin a vaccination campaign and, until last week, had insisted it was COVID-19-free.
EU's Russia sanctions effort slows over oil dependency
The European Union's efforts to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine appeared to be bogged down on Monday, as a small group of countries opposed a ban on imports of Russian oil.