Health official: Arizona poised to give COVID shots to kids

The state’s top public health official says preparations are underway to provide COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11 if the federal government authorizes a lower-dose Pfizer vaccine in early November. Department of Health Services Acting Director Don Herrington also says in a blog post Wednesday that children should get the vaccine because there have been cases when otherwise healthy kids get extremely ill from COVID-19. He also says children are effective spreaders of the disease and that vaccinating children would move Arizona closer to herd immunity. Arizona on Thursday reported 2,495 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 49 more virus deaths.