HOUSTON — It's has been a little over a week since COVID-19 vaccinations became available to children as young as 6 months old.
During that time, Texas Children’s Hospital says it has administered more than 6,000 vaccines to children under 5.
Doctors are encouraged by the number of parents bringing in their kids to get the shot, but they say there is still a lot of hesitancy.
Only 25% of school-age children in Texas are vaccinated.
"As a parent of a young child – or in my case grandparent of two young children who are both vaccinated – I can tell you we, as pediatricians, would never ever think to give a vaccine to a baby or young child if we weren’t 100% certain it's safe and very effective," said Dr. Stan Spinner with Texas Children's Hospital.
COVID-19 levels are high in the Houston area right now. City health leaders say the positivity rate is nearing 24 percent and that doesn't include results from home testing.
What’s different this time, though, is health officials say hospitalizations have remained low during this surge thanks to vaccinations and natural immunity.