UK Approves Moderna Vaccine for Children Aged between 6,11

The United Kingdom (UK) major medicine regulator approved on Thursday the use of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children aged between 6, and 11 years old.

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) expressed that it granted the Moderna vaccine that known as Spikevax the approval after meeting the required standards of safety, quality and effectiveness.

The vaccine was already authorized in the kingdom for people who are over 12 years, and its approval for the younger citizens issued a few hours after the agency authorized the French Valneva's vaccine for adults up to 50 years.

The newly released decisions came as the UK is currently seeing a tragic increase in COVID-19 daily infections amid the emergence of more Omicron subvariants such as XE.

Experts identified more symptoms of the newly discovered Coronavirus variant XE, the Mirror reported on Friday.

The symptoms of the new variant are believed to be more like cold, sneezing, and runny noses, alongside the original symptoms of the virus such as the loss of smell and taste, and breathing difficulties.

The new Coronavirus variant was identified in the United Kingdom (UK) and experts gave it the name XE.

The newly recognized variant is a combination of the original BA.1, Omicron, and its subvariant BA.2. Experts said that this kind of engagement between a variant and its subvariant is called “recombinant.”

Furthermore, they added that this variant didn’t form any threat until now, according to Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor Dr. John Brownstein.

Brownstein said: “Right now, there’s really no public health concern,” adding: “Recombinant variants happen over and over. In fact, the reason that this is the XE variant recombinant is that we’ve had XA, XB, XC, XD already, and none of those have turned out to be any real concern.”

UK Health Security Agency reported 637 XE cases since March 22, which means that XE was responsible for less than 1% of the newly reported infections in the UK.