Children ages 5 to 11 line up for COVID vaccine in Santa Fe

SANTA FE, N.M. – For many parents, the wait to finally vaccinate their younger children, is over. Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center held one of the first vaccination events in our state, for children 5 to 11 in Santa Fe.

Organizers of this vaccine clinic said all 62 of the slots they had today were claimed within an hour of being posted, and their other, larger clinics happening next week are filling up fast.

“As soon as we heard it was available, I started looking for different ways to get them vaccinated and heard from other people that its available at pharmacies or at NMDOH and then here today at St. Vincent,” said Jennifer Cramer, mother.

Families patiently wait in line to get their vaccines, some more excited than others

“I’m very excited and I want the whole world to get a vaccine so we could forget about COVID or at least get it weakened down enough so we can take these masks off,” said Gabriel Cramer.

“I was surprised that I was going to get vaccinated, cause I thought only adults could get vaccinated,” said Johnny Martinez.

Families went into the clinic one after another. Once they got the vaccine, they also got peace of mind.

“Honestly I’m really excited and I’m really glad we were given the opportunity to get him vaccinated today. I wanted to get him vaccinated to keep my younger ones safe,” said Monica Martinez, mother.

As for the children, they didn’t think it was that bad

“I was a little scared at first but when I got the shot I only felt a slight hurt but it didn’t really hurt that much,” Gabriel said.

Next weekend, Christus St. Vincent will have 400 more shots available, and said they will add more once they get doses.

The clinic said they wanted to hold these child vaccine drives on the weekend in case the kids experience any symptoms, so they won’t miss school and parents won’t have to take off work.