MA Could Vaccinate Younger Children Within A Month: What It Means For School Masks

Children as young as age 5 may start getting vaccinated within a month, the federal government recently told state leaders.

NBC cited a White House official who said the White House told governors to prepare vaccination efforts for children between 5-11 by early November.

For Massachusetts, that could mean the potential for hundreds of elementary schools becoming eligible to drop mask requirements.

The state allows for individual schools to lift indoor mask mandates if at least 80 percent of students and staff are vaccinated against COVID-19. Since current rules only allow vaccinations for children 12 and older, only most middle and high school students are eligible.

Hopkinton High last week became the first school in Massachusetts to be allowed to drop the mask mandates.

The Baker administration has been laying the groundwork to roll out the expanded vaccine effort for weeks. Officials recently reached out to local health providers and boards of health to check in on their ability to and concerns about vaccinating younger children.

More than 4.6 Massachusetts residents have been fully vaccinated, according to public health data.

"We are actively preparing for the authorization of 5- to 11-year-olds and all of your local boards of health got a very brief survey last night," Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders told municipal officials two weeks ago. "We're surveying everyone across the health care providers space on capacity or worries about vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds and there's a lot of informal conversations."

The FDA has an Oct. 26 meeting to discuss Pfizer and BioNTech's request for emergency use authorization for vaccines specifically made for children ages 5-11. The dosage and dilution requirements are different from the vaccines in use for the rest of the population.

NBC reported the Biden administration purchased enough doses to inoculate all the children who would become eligible if Pfizer and BioNTech's request is approved.

Materials from State House News Service contributed to this report