Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot received final approval from US health officials on Tuesday, bringing in a huge expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign to children as young as five.
The Food and Drug Administration has already approved the shots of Pfizer-paediatric BioNTech’s vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, with only one-third of the dose administered to teens and adults. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make formal recommendations about who should receive FDA-approved vaccines.
Pfizer’s approval by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was described by President Joe Biden as a “turning point” in the fight against Covid-19 saying, saying, “It will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others. It is a major step forward for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus.”
The CDC said the vaccination of children could begin “as soon as possible”.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the news just hours after an advisory panel unanimously recommended that Pfizer’s shots should be made available to the 28 million children in that age group.
The distribution of the pediatric vaccine has already begun, with plans to boost up to full capacity on November 8, according to the CDC, who added that vaccines will be available at a variety of locations, including pediatric health care provider offices, pharmacies, and Federally Qualified Health Centers (HRSA).
Meanwhile, daily cases and deaths in Russia remained at their highest levels of the pandemic on Wednesday, as more regions declared that existing restrictions will be extended in an effort to tamp down the outbreak.
The state coronavirus task force in Russia reported 40,443 new confirmed cases from the previous day. It was the country’s fifth report of more than 40,000 infections in seven days. The task group reportedly recorded 1,189 Covid-19 deaths on a daily basis.
More Chinese provinces are fighting Covid-19 than at any other time since the deadly disease first appeared in Wuhan in 2019. Infections have been discovered in 19 of the world’s 31 provinces, making China the world’s second-largest economy.
