QUEZON CITY, (PIA) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old after the review of technical documents and evaluation of the US (United States) FDA recommendations.

“Our experts have found that the data submitted is sufficient for the EUA approval,” FDA Director-General Eric Domingo confirmed.

Domingo explained that Pfizer vaccine has shown 90 percent efficacy for children in the said age group.

“Its efficacy rate is high, above 90% for kids 5 to 11 years. At the same time, the adverse effects in the clinical trials were only very mild. A bit of a fever, some pain in the area of injection, but no unusual important safety signals were detected,” he said.

However, the vaccine for children below 12 will have lower dosage and concentration than those given to adults and children aged 12 to 17.

“’Yun pong nakitang adverse events doon  sa clinical trial ay very mild lamang po katulad lamang ng ibang bakuna na natatanggap ng ibang bata. So, kaunting siguro po may sinisinat, kaunting pananakit doon sa area ng injection,” he said.

"Pero wala pong nakitang any unusual or important safety signals para po hindi natin mabigay itong EUA. So, this is being granted today," he added. (PIA-NCR)