Sydney, Dec. 10 (BNA) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that Australia will start giving COVID-19 vaccines to children aged 5-11 from Jan. 10, after the app removed the final regulatory hurdles.
“This will be good news for the millions of families across the country who want the opportunity to have their children vaccinated,” Morrison said in a statement.
After reviewing clinical data from Canada, the country’s Vaccination Advisory Group recommended an eight-week interval between the two doses, which could be shortened to three weeks in the event of an outbreak.
Pfizer doses will be given in the initial phase, while regulators are evaluating the suitability of Moderna shots. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
The decision comes as Australia seeks to speed up the rollout of the booster shots after becoming one of the world’s most vaccinated countries against COVID-19, vaccinating nearly 90% of its population over 16 with two doses. About 70% of children aged 12 to 15 years are fully vaccinated.
Authorities urged people to take a booster dose worried about a new, more transmissible alternative to Omicron amid a steady rise in infections in Sydney, Australia’s largest city.
New South Wales, which includes Sydney, reported 516 new cases on Friday, its biggest rise in two months.
Most were caused by a delta variant but the number of Omicron infections has been increasing since Australia reported its first case about two weeks ago. About 50 cases have been detected so far, the majority in Sydney.
Australia has reported around 225,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,084 deaths, far fewer than many similar countries.
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