United States approves COVID-19 Omicron vaccine for children as young as 5

United States has approved updated COVID-19booster shots which specifically target the Omicron variant in children under the age of 18 years. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Wednesday that it has authorised one shot from Pfizer-BioNTech and one fromModerna.

While Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine is for kids between 5 to 11 years, Moderna’s shot was made for kids between 6and 17 years. Both were additional booster shots that will be administered to kids who already have taken two primary doses of the vaccine as well as a booster shot.

The FDA said in its statement that there needs to be a gap of two months from the last dose.

It was welcome news for American parents as the number of COVID-19 cases in kids under the age of 18 has risen in the past few weeks. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 40,700 cases were reported last week – a significant increase from the average number of cases.

“Both vaccines target the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants, in addition to the original coronavirus strain, in a single shot. BA.5 remains the dominant strain in the U.S., making up about 79% of all new Covid cases”, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in their official statement.

Although the FDA has already approved the vaccines, the final decision will rest with Disease Control and Prevention. However, the approval should be completed in the next few days with experts calling for more booster shots for kids in order to avoid another wave of infections in the winter.