Walk-in appointments were once popular at a supersite, but now, the province says the RBC Convention Centre supersite is no longer doing them after a spike in another interest at the site.

Starting today, the downtown supersite will be vaccinating people on an appointment-only basis. This comes after the high demand for COVID-19 vaccines for youth aged five to 11.

"We are thankful that this virus does seem to be less severe in kids than it is in older age groups. But it still is causing a lot of illness. It is still causing a lot of disruption, it is causing some severe outcomes for some children, most of whom didn't even have high-risk health conditions," Dr. Joss Reimer, Manitoba's COVID-19 vaccine task force medical lead says in a Wednesday press conference. 

The doctor says Monday's opening of appointments in this age group has been very exciting.

Since Monday, more than 22,000 children in this age group have had appointments booked. This is almost 10,000 more appointments made since Monday's first five hours of appointment bookings. There are roughly 125,000 children in Manitoba in this age group. Currently, this age group can only book vaccinations at supersites. 

The province expects vaccination appointment numbers to jump once vaccinations arrive at medical clinics and pharmacies, set to arrive as soon as Thursday.

As of Wednesday morning, 2,599,670 doses of vaccine have been administered. The province says 84.9 per cent of all Manitobans born before December 31, 2009, have received two COVID-19 vaccines, and 87.5 per cent of people have received one dose.