Sheridan County adds 56 COVID-19 cases over the weekend/ Pfizer: vaccine works in children ages 5 – 11

According to COVID-19 Public Information Officer Jennifer Graves, Sheridan County has identified 56 cases of COVID-19 over the weekend. 

Thirty-nine of those cases are lab confirmed and 17 are probable. These additions bring the total to 3,386 lab confirmed cases  and 975 probable cases since the pandemic began. 

There are now 217 active cases of COVID-19 in the county. 

In Sheridan County, 82 patients have recovered from the virus since Friday. The county has experienced the deaths of 38 residents since the pandemic began. 

Sheridan County currently has 11 patients hospitalized suffering from the virus. 

In a Monday, Sept. 20, news release from Pfizer, the biopharmaceutical company stated its COVID-19 vaccine works for children ages 5 to 11 and that it intends to seek U.S. authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for this age group in the near future. 

Pfizer and their German counterpart, BioNTech, stated that the results from a Phase 2/3 trial showed a favorable safety profile and robust neutralizing antibody responses in children 5 to 11 years of age using a two-dose regimen of 10 micrograms administered 21 days apart, a smaller dose than the 30 microgram dose used for people 12 and older. The antibody responses in the participants given 10 microgram doses were comparable to those recorded in a previous Pfizer-BioNTech study in people 16 to 25 years of age immunized with 30 microgram doses. The 10 microgram dose was carefully selected as the preferred dose for safety, tolerability and immunogenicity in children 5 to 11 years of age. These are the first results from a pivotal trial of a COVID-19 vaccine in this age group. 

Pfizer and BioNTech stated the company plans to share this data with the FDA, European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulators as soon as possible. In the U.S. the companies expect to include the data in a near-term submission for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) as they continue to accumulate the safety and efficacy data required to file for full FDA approval in this age group. See the entire news release, here.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list Sheridan County’s level of community transmission as HIGH.

More COVID-19 information is available at www.sheridancounty.com/covid-19/.