US Receives 4 Mln. COVID-19 Vaccine Doses for Children

The US delivered more than 4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for protecting children under 5 years old to all vaccination centres that will receive the children, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson announced on Thursday.

HHS received about 4.3 million vaccine doses, and will continue to receive more orders, the spokesperson added.

The statement continued: "We made 10 million doses of vaccine available for ordering initially, with millions more available soon, so supply should not be a barrier to someone getting their young child vaccinated.

Early this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer and Moderna shots for children under four years, and babies over six months

Children whose ages range between six months and four years can receive three shots of Pfizer, on the other hand, children whose ages range between six months and five years can have two doses of Moderna.

In the same context, the FDA advisers recommended authorizing the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children aged between six and 17 years old.

The panel of experts will meet again on Wednesday to consider Moderna shots for children under six and Pfizer shots for children under five.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved for children aged between 5 to 11 years old.

Around 30% of children whose ages ranged between five and 11 years old and 60% of the children aged between 12 and 17 years old are fully vaccinated in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Committee Member and UC Berkeley professor Dr. Arthur Reingold said: “I’d like to give parents as many choices as possible, and let them make the decisions about this for their children.”