LONDON, December 22, Reuters - Britain said on Wednesday it would start vaccinating vulnerable children aged five to 11 against COVID - 19 after the country's medicines regulators approved the use of a lower dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot in that age group.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation JCVI said that the children will receive two 10 microgram doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine - a third of the adult dose - with an interval of eight weeks between the first and second doses.
The decision on whether to offer vaccination to younger children would be made after additional data on the rapidly spreading Omicron variant and the effect of immunising young children could be considered, according to the JCVI.
The JCVI chair of COVID 19 immunisation, Wei Shen Lim, said that the majority of children aged 5 to 11 are at very low risk of serious illness.
Some 5 to 11 year-olds have health conditions that put them at higher risk, and we advise them to be vaccinated in the first instance. The JCVI advised that booster shots be offered to 16 and 17 year-olds and those aged between 12 and 15 who were in a clinical risk group because of the Omicron variant.