Vaccine for children aged 5-11 approved by EMA

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children between the ages of five to 11.

The Pfizer jab is already cleared for use in people aged 12 and over across the EU but has only been approved in a small number of countries for children aged five to 11 including Israel, Canada and the United States.

The 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 5 to 11", using the vaccine's brand name.

Children in this age cohort will be given one third of the dose that older people receive, with two injections, three weeks apart, according to the EMA, adding the vaccine was 90.7 per cent effective in a study of nearly 2,000 children of that age with side effects being "mild to moderate" lasting a few days, and included tiredness, headache, pain in the injection site, chills and muscle pain.

The EMA "therefore concluded that the benefits of Comirnaty in chilren aged five to 11 outweigh the risks, particularly in those with conditions that increase the risk of severe Covid-19."