The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as 12 years old on Monday.
This is the first Covid-19 vaccine allowed in the U.S. for ages 12 to 15 years. Vaccination at a younger age is considered an important step in bringing children back to school safely.
Injections can begin as soon as the federal vaccine advisory committee issues a recommendation to use two doses of the vaccine in children 12 to 15 years of age. The announcement is expected on Wednesday.
To date, the vaccine has been available under emergency use approval for people 16 years of age in the United States.
Vaccine makers say they have begun asking for full consent for vaccinations in people 16 and older last week.
The Pfizer vaccine has been used in various countries for teens as young as 16 years old, and Canada recently became the first to expand its use to ages 12 and up.
