Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Latest Health Department vaccination data shows a total of 2,222 children in the age group of 5 to 11 years old are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, which is a great achievement for the government’s “Protect AS One” vaccination drive since doses for this age group only became available late last year.

ASG officials have credited the cooperation of parents, who made sure that their children in this age group were taken to the DoH clinics when students were due for the second-dose during the time schools was out for the holiday break. This was after being vaccinated with the first-shot during the launch in the first week of December of the vaccination drive targeting students in schools.

DoH data, as of late week, shows that from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23, a total of 4,565 doses were administered for children ages 5 to 11 years old. Of the overall total, DoH data states that 3,940 doses were for the first-shot and 625 for the 2nd shot.

For the age group, 12 to 17 years old, total number of doses administered during the same time period, stands at 432 — with 263 for the first-shot; 163 for the second shot and six for the booster.

COVID-19 Task Force news release following their meeting earlier this week states that in December, 10,071 doses were administered making last month, one of the most successful of the year and comparable to the early months of the vaccination efforts.

By age group, 5-11 year olds made up the majority of shots administered in December.

DoH data, as of the morning of Jan. 3rd, shows that 2,222 students in the 5 to 11 age group are fully vaccinated, while 2,155 are waiting for their 2nd shot and 5 are past due.

Data also shows a jump in the number of students in the 12 to 17 years old age group been fully vaccinated. As of Jan. 3rd, a total of 5,495 are now fully vaccinated, 200 awaiting their second shot, and 124 are past due.

There is no indication yet as to whether DoH teams will return to schools to hold vaccination clinics as was done during the mass vax drive during the first three-weeks of December — but the issue is expected to be discussed further with the task force, which says in its news release this week that as of January 3rd, 80.4% of the entire population have had at least one dose and 72.9% are fully vaccinated. At the school level, 79.6% of students have at least one shot and 60.9% are fully vaccinated. This compared with the ASDOC workforce of 2,179 individuals of which only 915 employees were fully vaccinated as of Dec. 27 — or just under 42%.

With students returning to school this week, DoH is hoping that the numbers of fully vaccinated in the 5 to 11 year old age group will increase but parents will have to take their children to designated vaccination clinics including after hours clinics on Tuesdays and Thursdays.