The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has given its approval for the Pfizer vaccine to be given to children between the ages of five and eleven. The dose will be lower than that for age 12 and older (10 ug versus 30 ug), with two doses to be administered three weeks apart.
The decision, made at a meeting on Thursday, comes amid a large increase in Covid cases throughout Europe, mainly attributed to low vaccination rates in some countries and to the fact that children under 11 years of age have so far not been given the vaccine.
In Spain, the highest 14-day cumulative incidence is among children eleven years old and younger. This is 203.57, much higher than the incidence for the next group, people between 40 and 49, which is 155.91.
In the United States, Pfizer's vaccine has been licensed for children aged 5 to 11 for nearly a month. According to data from the US Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine was 90.7 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 in this age group.
In addition, the safety of the vaccine was studied in approximately 3,100 children aged 5 to 11. No serious side effects were detected in a clinical trial that is still ongoing and which has now involved some 4,700 children. The study is being carried out in Spain, the United States, Finland and Poland.