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November 30, 2023
In This Edition
COVID-19 vaccine is routinely recommended for everyone 6 months of age and older and stocking all recommended vaccines is a requirement of the Vaccines for Children (VFC) Program. VFC COVID-19 vaccine is currently available to order in the Minnesota Immunization Information Connection (MIIC). Parents are reporting difficulty finding the product for the youngest age group and there are now fewer opportunities at non-clinic settings for these kids to be vaccinated. Additionally, kids under the age of 2 years have COVID-19 related hospitalization rates similar to adults ages 65 to 75 years old. It is important to maintain COVID-19 vaccine inventory for your pediatric patient population and not miss an opportunity to vaccinate kids in this age group when they are seen in your office.
According to CDC: Clinical Guidance for COVID-19 Vaccination: Interchangeability of COVID-19 Vaccines, children ages 6 months through 4 years should receive vaccines from the same manufacturer. However, vaccine from a different manufacturer may be administered in the following circumstances:
- Same vaccine is not available at the vaccination site at the time of the clinic visit.
- Previous dose is unknown.
- Person would otherwise not receive a recommended vaccine dose.
- Person starts but is unable to complete a vaccination series with the same COVID-19 vaccine due to a contraindication.
Providers should not be turning away patients or refusing to schedule vaccination appointments due to only stocking one COVID-19 vaccine product.
The client follow-up function in MIIC has been updated to reflect current COVID-19 recommendations. The list of vaccines that you can now choose from includes COVID-19 Routine as an option. This provides a distinction between annual/routine COVID-19 vaccination and initial pandemic vaccination. This function will help to identify clients overdue, recommended, or overdue/recommended for currently recommended COVID-19 Routine vaccines. Please contact the MIIC Help Desk at health.miichelp@state.mn.us with any questions or issues.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends routine human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination at 11 or 12 years of age, but it can be started as early as age 9. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) supports starting HPV vaccination at age 9 so that series completion is more apt to occur by age 13.
Beginning to provide a strong recommendation when the child is 9 years old will provide more opportunities for HPV vaccination throughout early adolescence and more opportunities for parent questions and concerns to be discussed and addressed. At this age, the focus of the conversation can be on cancer prevention and concerns about sexual activity are lessened. Visit For Health Care Providers Serving Adolescents for more information on implementing HPV vaccination at age 9.
This new strategy will help to close coverage gaps for adolescent HPV vaccination. As of July, less than 60% of Minnesota 13-year-olds have started the vaccine series and less than 30% have completed it. For more information on adolescent vaccination coverage data and gaps visit Adolescent Immunizations.
The MIIC forecaster has been updated to reflect the change in HPV vaccine recommendation to age 9. The minimum date and the recommended date are now the client’s ninth birthday. No overdue date or interval changes between doses have been made. MIIC’s client follow-up feature will pull overdue/recommended clients based on these updates to the forecaster. The assessment feature will continue to show vaccination rates based on the age range a user specifies for the report.
MDH will be promoting HPV vaccine recommendation for 9 to 12-year-olds in January 2024 as part of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month media campaign. Providers can email health.vaccineSME@state.mn.us with questions.
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