Tonight, some news for parents with small children. A top health panel is recommending kids five to eleven get a Covid booster. It comes as the pandemic is rearing its ugly head once again. More than two years since the begin, the infections are on the rise nationwide. Just in the past month alone, Covid cases have soared more than one hundred and sixty eight percent. Some health officials are concerned that it could be the beginning of the fifth wave. About one third of the nation live in areas where Covid infections are at medium or high-risk levels. Public officials are urging some communities with rising cases return to stricter pandemic measures including those indoors masks. New cases are nearing one hundred thousand per day with the Memorial Day weekend just around the corner.

Those Pfizer booster shots for children ages five to eleven could be available at this pharmacy and others across the country as soon as tomorrow. There is an urgency for parents here in Connecticut. Covid cases have jumped more than one hundred percent in just a month. Covid concern skyrocketing, nationwide, hospitalizations are on the rise in forty states, cases are up in forty-one states. There is also deepening concern among parents. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that cases among kids have climbed seventy six percent in the past two weeks. Late today, a CDC scientific panel voted to recommend a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages five to eleven, even though only twenty-eight percent in that age group have gotten their first two doses. In Connecticut, Covid cases are up nearly one hundred and eighteen percent in the past month.