Alarmed by a steep decline in routine childhood vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook County Health officials are urging parents to ensure that any missing shots get in kids’ arms this summer to avoid outbreaks of infections during the upcoming school year.

       A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released earlier this month that analyzed immunization data for 10 states found a sharp decrease in vaccine doses administered during March through May of 2020 compared with the same period during 2018 and 2019 — a shortfall officials said puts “U.S. children and adolescents at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases.”

       Despite an uptick in vaccines administered during June through September of 2020, a period after many of the shutdowns were lifted, officials said the “increase was not sufficient to achieve catch-up coverage.”

       “Pediatric outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases have the potential to derail efforts to reopen schools for the 2021–22 academic year and further delay nationwide efforts to return students to the classroom,” CDC officials said in the report.

       “Health care systems and other social institutions are already overburdened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine preventable disease outbreaks can lead to loss of in-person learning and further overwhelm community resources and contribute to morbidity and mortality,” officials said.

       The CDC also recommends providers “consider co-administering COVID-19 vaccines with other routinely recommended vaccines, especially when patients are behind or might fall behind on routine recommended vaccines.”

       Children 12 and over are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and some experts are hopeful a vaccine for younger children might be available in the fall.

       Kaiden Whittman, 3, receives a flu shot in 2016 at Advocate Children's Hospital. Illinois state law requires certain immunizations for children (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

       While Illinois was not one of the 10 states that participated in the CDC childhood vaccination study, officials with Cook County Health said Wednesday that the county and state have seen similar troubling trends locally during the pandemic.

       “I think fear was the main reason families were not bringing their children in to the pediatrician for their vaccines during the pandemic, and we saw a lot of parents cancel visits because they were worried about taking public transportation, and other ways of possibly being exposed to the virus,” Dr. Rosibell Arcia-Diaz, a pediatrician with Cook County Health, said.

       “But right now, the concern is if families don’t start meeting the vaccine schedules, we could see possible outbreaks,” Arcia-Diaz said.

       In addition to following CDC vaccination schedules for infants, children, preteens and teens, Illinois state law requires certain immunizations for children and adults enrolled in child care, school or college, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

       Yet even before the pandemic upended routine vaccine schedules for some families, Illinois experienced a surge of whooping cough cases in 2019, especially in young children and adolescents.

       From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of that year, the state’s health department tracked 389 individual cases of whooping cough, known by the medical name of pertussis, including three outbreaks in Lake County, officials said at the time.

       Still, Arcia-Diaz said families who have gotten behind on their children’s routine vaccinations can get caught up on required shots like the DTaP (diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis), the MMR, a vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella, and other required immunizations by scheduling a visit to their local pediatrician.

       But ensuring children receive their missing vaccines is only one important component of a visit to the pediatrician, as many youngsters have also not had a recommended annual physical — known as a wellness exam — since the outbreak of the pandemic, Arcia-Diaz said.

       “It’s also very important for children to be screened for mental health, growth and development and depending on their age group, blood pressure and obesity,” she said.

       Above all, Arcia-Diaz encourages families to waste no time in scheduling their children’s vaccine and checkup appointments to avoid the end-of-summer crunch.

       “We’re definitely encouraging parents to be proactive, and to schedule their children’s appointments early on this summer, so the kids will be caught up on their immunizations before the start of the new school year,” Arcia-Diaz said.

       kcullotta@chicagotribune.com

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