Less than half of kids aged 5 to 11 in northeastern Ontario have been vaccinated against COVID-19

Ashley Gibson-Taylor of Sudbury brought her two boys to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as she could. 

And now as she's fearing another two weeks of them struggling with online learning, especially her seven-year-old son who has special needs, she's wishing more parents had done the same. 

"If schools are constantly being closed, then clearly that's where we should be focusing our vaccine efforts and I don't think that's been done properly," Gibson-Taylor said. 

"I think the rollout for the kids' vaccine could have been done a lot better. I don't think the 40 per cent we're seeing here properly reflects people that want to get their kids vaccinated, I think it's just been a nightmare to get it done."

In particular, she wonders how many parents were scared off by the long lineups at vaccination clinics in December once booster shots were available for adults to stop the spread of the new Omicron variant. 

In Sudbury and Manitoulin, about 6,400 children have been vaccinated in the past month, but over that same period, 58,000 boosters were given out.

Public Health Sudbury and Districts says 44 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have been vaccinated, while the rate is 49 per cent in the Algoma district and was 44 per cent in Timiskaming as of Dec. 23.

But only 35 per cent of kids in the Porcupine health district and 36 per cent in Nipissing and Parry Sound have gotten the shot, below the provincial average of 42 per cent. 

Public health officials say they're pleased with the numbers so far and say a slower uptake is typical with vaccination campaigns for children.

On Tuesday, only a handful of youngsters could be spotted among the grown-ups in the lines outside of vaccination clinics in the Sudbury area.

Natalie Vaillancourt stood in the cold outside the Carmichael Arena with her son, niece and nephew, waiting to get the shot.

She says they waited until now because her husband had severe side effects following one of his vaccine doses. 

"That's all we were hesitant about is side effects, if anything were to occur," said Vaillancourt, who is happy that the schools are closing for two weeks to keep kids safe.

"But the more and more we hear about other people getting the vaccines, everything's going to be fine."

Sudbury-based biostastician Ryan Imgrund says it's fair to say kids' vaccines have taken a backseat to boosters over the last month.

"It was a shame that the Omicron data and five to 11 year-olds were accepted for the vaccine around the exact same time," he said.

Imgrund also says it's interesting to compare the uptake among five to 11-year-olds to those aged 12 to 17, which lagged behind for most of the past year, but is now at over 80 per cent.

He said "we were able to sell" that group on getting the shot by not requiring fully-vaccinated teens to isolate after a close contact. 

"It's a real shame because when you don't give incentives to the vaccination of younger kids, what you're going to see is that the uptake is not very high," said Imgrund. 

He also feels that "one of the reasons" schools need to be closed until at least Jan. 17 is the province's decision to scale back on testing for teachers and students and to no longer report COVID activity in schools.

It's why Imgrund is inviting the public to report COVID symptoms in school aged children on his own website.

"It's actually frightening," he said. 

"I never thought we'd ever be in a situation where we'd have to rely on the public reporting symptoms."