Pfizer Covid vaccine gets green light for kids aged 5-11

The Pfizer/BioNTech Corona virus jab got the green light for children aged five to 11 in Europe yesterday, clearing the way for the vaccination in a cohort where the virus is rapidly spreading.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said that a panel of experts recommended granting an extension of indication for the COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty to include use in children aged five to 11, using the jab's brand name.

The vaccine is already cleared for use in people aged 12 and over in the 27-nation EU. Pfizer's jab is has so far only been approved



in a small number of countries for children aged five to 11 years in countries including the United States, Israel and Canada.

In the Netherlands, where the EMA is based, authorities said earlier this week that the largest increase in cases was among children up to the age of 12 years.

The regulator has so far approved four vaccines for use in the EU: Pfizer and Moderna, which use messenger RNA technology and AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which use viral vector technology.