As the medical assistant put on rubber gloves and readied the syringe, 5-year-old Victoria Macias, wearing a pink Minnie Mouse mask and white blouse, turned her head away and closed her eyes.

“It’s not going to hurt, OK? I’ll hold your hand, I’ll hold your hand,” said her older sister, Alondra, 8. “Deep breath, deep breath.”

The medical assistant, Rachel Blancas, poked Victoria’s left arm for about a second. Victoria opened her eyes. And with that, the Macias sisters were among the first 5- to 11-year-olds to get the COVID-19 vaccine in the Midwest’s largest city.

Their mom, Maria Lopez, took them out of school early last Thursday to stop by the mass immunization site on Chicago’s southwest side. “They have gotten every other vaccine available, so why not this one?” said Lopez, 43, a real-estate broker.

Esperanza Health Centers, a nonprofit health provider that is operating the site, has been the top pediatric COVID vaccine provider in Chicago, according to the city’s Department of Public Health, administering about 10,000 immunizations to 12- to 17-year-olds. Now that the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for kids ages 5-11, the organization’s efforts may provide lessons for other places in the U.S. that have struggled to vaccinate children. Head over to Kaiser Health News to read the full story.