Camden County Welcomes Pfizer Finding On Kids' COVID Vaccine

CAMDEN COUNTY, NJ — Camden County Commissioner Director Louis Cappelli Jr. called Pfizer’s announcement that its COVID-19 vaccine safe and generated a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5 to 11 a “positive step” toward a post-pandemic world.

“We know that we only have a couple of strong tools to delivering us back to a way of life we still long for, and the vaccine is by far and away the most important tool in that fight,” Cappelli said. “Furthermore, at this point, we have seen 260 students throughout the county who have contracted the virus. The need for a vaccine in this age range and population is critical for our community and while none of these known cases have been tracked back to the classroom, sports and other activities have been key transmission spots that we have tracked.”

Pfizer made its announcement Monday morning. Pfizer said it plans to submit its findings to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization soon, CNN reports. Once that happens, federal officials said the vaccine could be available in a matter of weeks. Read more here: Kids’ COVID Vaccine May Be Approved By Halloween: Former FDA Head

"This could have a significant impact," Virtua Health Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer Reg Blaber said during a news conference Monday. "To the degree we can protect our children, we can protect our community."

“As we continue to watch case counts rise, younger and younger residents are growing into the primary transmitters of the virus to their unvaccinated peers,” Cappelli said. “We have seen more than 30 percent of our new cases come from school age children, being under the age of 18. The new use of the Pfizer vaccine will now allow us, when emergency use is provided by the FDA, to protect most of those kids and students from COVID-19. At this point, if the data supports the announcement, we are only weeks away from making this lifesaving vaccine available to all of our students throughout the county and again getting us one step closer to being on the other side of this virus. That said, the unvaccinated adult or child are still the most likely to get COVID and transmit, so if you are an adult that still has not gotten the vaccine for some unknown reason, please get it now.”

Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden/Burlington/Gloucester) warned that many people who have not been vaccinated themselves may be opposed to getting their children vaccinated.

"We have to break through that mistrust and misinformation," Norcross said.

There have been no outbreaks due to in-classroom exposure, according to Assistant Health Coordinator Caryelle Lasher. An outbreak in schools happens when there are three or more cases that are linked completely in-school, as opposed to someone bringing the coronavirus into the school from outside, Lasher said.

There are three districts that have had outbreaks due to sports teams, Lasher said. She didn't say which districts had seen those outbreaks.

Additionally, the FDA approved a booster shot on Friday for residents older than 65 years old, as well as those who are at high-risk for getting the coronavirus. On Monday, Camden County Commissioner Jonathan Young said a booster clinic was likely at Camden County College in Gloucester Township on Oct. 11. More information will be provided at a later date, he said.

The Camden County Department of Health reported 357 new coronavirus cases and 11 new coronavirus-related deaths between Saturday and Monday. As of Monday, there have been 55,568 coronavirus cases and 1,273 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Of this weekend’s 357 new cases, 85 are among patients under 18 years old. The average age of the newly infected is 37 years old.

As of Monday, Camden County is averaging 124 new cases a day, according to officials. The infection rate is 1.08, and the test positivity rate is 6.8 percent. About 7 percent of Camden County residents are being hospitalized with the coronavirus.

As of Monday, 333,221 Camden County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 300,830 are fully vaccinated. More information regarding vaccination rates throughout the county and available on the state’s COVID-19 dashboard at covid19.nj.gov.

The Camden County Health Department is continuing to closely track new cases of COVID-19 and information regarding the prevalence of the Delta variant. New cases are often reassigned to other municipalities over the course of an investigation.

More information regarding Camden County's preparations and response related to the COVID-19 pandemic is available by visiting camdencounty.com. Residents should frequently check the county webpage and social media for up-to-date information.