Nearly 150 Children Vaccinated At North Shore Country Day School

WINNETKA, IL — North Shore Country Day School partnered with state public health officials to hold a COVID-19 vaccination clinic Friday, offering first jabs to children under the age of 12 and third shots to employees at the Winnetka private school.

Nearly 150 children between the ages of 5 and 11 received pediatric doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 at the clinic, which was open to students and their families, regardless of where their siblings attend school, according to school officials.

“We are very excited to offer this opportunity to our students and families,” Tom Flemma, the head of the school, said in a statement. “The availability of vaccines for children 5-11 is a hopeful sign, especially as the weather turns colder."

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Unvaccinated students and staff are subject to weekly saliva tests, according to school officials, who said that entire school community may be tested a few times a year, such as after holiday travel, as an additional precaution.

"We continue to creep closer to normal," Flemma added, "but most of our mitigation strategies will continue—including wearing masks for the time being—to protect the students and staff at school.”

In addition to child-strength doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines, the Illinois Department of Public Health also provided about 50 booster doses of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson for faculty and staff, according to school officials.

A second vaccination clinic is planned for Dec. 3 to provide second doses to those who received their first last week.

As of Thursday, 97 percent of students in grades 7-12 are already fully vaccinated, as are 97 percent of faculty and staff at the school, according to a school spokesperson.

North Shore Country Day School has conducted an average of about 230 COVID-19 tests a week in recent weeks, according to the school's website. There have been just two confirmed positive cases from in-school testing since August.