COVID-19 Immunization Resources
For any patients you are already seeing, assess and give them all the vaccines they need. Give priority to vaccinating against pneumonias that vaccines can prevent: pneumococcal, influenza, pertussis, measles, etc.
Maintaining Childhood Immunizations During COVID-19 Pandemic (CDC, 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic is changing rapidly and continues to affect communities across the United States differently. Some of the strategies used to slow the spread of disease in communities include postponing or cancelling non-urgent elective procedures and using telemedicine instead of face-to-face encounters for routine medical visits.
Ensuring the delivery of newborn and well-child care, including childhood immunization, requires different strategies. Healthcare providers in communities affected by COVID-19 are using strategies to separate well visits from sick visits. Examples include:
- Scheduling well visits in the morning and sick visits in the afternoon
- Separating patients spatially, such as by placing patients with sick visits in different areas of the clinic or another location from patients with well visits.
- Collaborating with providers in the community to identify separate locations for holding well visits for children.
Because of personal, practice, or community circumstances related to COVID-19, some providers may not be able to provide well child visits, including provision of immunizations, for all patients in their practice. If a practice can provide only limited well child visits, healthcare providers are encouraged to prioritize newborn care and vaccination of infants and young children (through 24 months of age) when possible. CDC is monitoring the situation and will continue to provide guidance.
Resources
- 2020 Immunization Schedules: The child and adolescent immunization schedule and the adult immunization schedule are now available for order on the CDC website.
- WHO’s Guiding principles for immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic
- AAP’s COVID-19 Clinical Guidance Q&A web page
- CDC’s Guidance on Maintaining Childhood Immunizations During COVID-19 Pandemic is available on Resources for Clinics and Healthcare Facilities
- Vaccines When Your Child is Sick
Helpful Hint From the Field
The PA Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics had a webinar on 3/25/2020 on telehealth. A participant shared a helpful bit of information particularly relevant to immunization. She said that one of the ways they are using telemedicine is to reassure parents whose kids are due for well visits that include immunizations and who are scared to bring their currently healthy kid into the office, that they can do most of the visit via video/audio, and just need to bring the kid in for a quick weight, height, brief physical, and immunizations – all the rest can be done at home with telehealth. This has proven to be very reassuring to parents – that they can really minimize the time they spend in the clinical office perhaps being exposed to covid-19.
View PA AAP’s webinar, “Implementing Telemedicine in Pediatric Practice” here.
