The Biden administration on Wednesday announced its plan for vaccinating children aged 5 to 11 ahead of the FDA's anticipated emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for kids between that age range.
The administration has procured enough vaccines for 28 million children of that age group, which will be given by more than 25,000 pediatric and primary care providers, the White House said.
Tens of thousands of pharmacies will offer the vaccine, and the administration will work to make the shots available at hundreds of schools and community health centres.
The Biden administration bought 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, enough to give shots to the estimated 28 million children in that age range who would be eligible if the Food and Drug Administration authorizes its use.
An FDA advisory committee is expected to meet next week to discuss the request by the pharmaceutical companies to authorize the use of their vaccine for those kids.
In September, Pfizer said its two-dose Covid vaccine was shown to be safe in the trial for the 5 to 11 age group and said that it provided a "Well tolerated" and "Robust" antibody response.
The Pfizer vaccine has been available for people ages 12 and older since May.
