Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Friday received authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for children ages 5 to 11, Bloomberg News reports.
The vaccine is administered as a two-dose primary series, 3 weeks apart, but is a lower dose, 10 micrograms, than that used for individuals 12 years of age and older which is 30 micrograms.
Friday’s approval came three days after an FDA advisory panel endorsed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
17 members of the advisory panel voted in favor of the recommendation and one abstained.
Following the FDA authorization, the process now heads to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
An advisory committee for the CDC will meet on Tuesday to discuss the safety of the vaccine for children as well as efficacy data, and then CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to give the final signoff soon afterward.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, US President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, estimated on Sunday that children ages 5 to 11 in the United States may be able to receive their COVID-19 vaccine in the first two weeks of November once the shots are approved.
The Biden administration last week unveiled its plan to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11 against the coronavirus.
According to the plan, the vaccine doses will be specially prepared for children and be different from the doses that are given in the vaccines administered to adults.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)