About 900,000 children ages 5 to 11 have received their first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine since US regulators cleared the shots for the younger age group, the White House said Wednesday.
Roughly 700,000 more young children have appointments at local pharmacies to get their shots, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters, according to CNBC.
“Families across the country are breathing giant sighs of relief,” Zients said during a White House briefing on the pandemic. President Joe Biden’s administration will continue to work with states and health-care providers to make more doses available, he stated.
The Biden administration has said it has procured enough vaccine doses to inoculate all 28 million 5-to 11-year-olds in the US.
The vaccine is distributed in smaller dosing and with smaller needles to make it easier for pediatricians and pharmacists to administer to kids.
Pfizer’s vaccine for kids is one-third of the dosage given to teens and adults. Vials of the vaccine come in different packaging — orange-capped and -labeled vials as opposed to the purple vials for those 12 and older.
Across the country, 114 pediatric hospitals are now offering shots to young kids, with many hosting vaccination events to boost immunization, Zients said on Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 in late October, three days after an FDA advisory panel endorsed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) formally recommended the vaccine for children on November 2.
In Israel, meanwhile, members of the pandemic treatment team at the Ministry of Health on Wednesday recommended to approve the vaccine against COVID-19 for children ages 5-11.
The vaccine was approved by a majority of 73 to 2.
Source: Arutz Sheva