Australia asks Pfizer to seek COVID vaccine authorization for children as young as five

The Pfizer vaccine company has been asked by the Australian administration to seek authorisation to introduce its COVID vaccine to children as young as five years old. As per Xinhua, Australia's Health Minister Greg Hunt urged Pfizer to get its COVID vaccine authorised for administering it to children age between 5 to 11 years old after testing revealed that the vaccination produced strong antibodies at comparable levels to those found in teens and young adults. 

Writing a letter to Pfizer's managing director for Australia and New Zealand Anne Harris, Greg Hunt said that he was pleased with the studies in which Pfizer vaccines was showing strong potential in youngsters underneath the age of 12. He further urged that Pfizer file a similar application for Australian regulatory authorisation to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) as early as possible. 

Vaccination for children

When the TGA will determine that this vaccine is medically beneficial and safe for children under the age of 12, then instantly, the government of Australia will prepare to make this vaccination available to this extended age group, Greg stated.  

The Australian Medical Association and medical specialists informed the COVID council on Tuesday that children between the ages of 12 to 15 should be inoculated before the COVID restrictions are removed. Only 14.4% of youngsters between 12 to 15 years old in Australia have received their first dosage, and fewer than 1% have been completely inoculated. 

As per the Guardian, nearly 38.35% population of Australia have been fully vaccinated with approximately 25.4 million doses had been administered to the citizens. The federal government has set 70% and 80% of double-dose vaccination benchmarks for the community of the aged 16 and above as the limits for phases B and C, respectively, for its ‘National Plan to Transition Australia's National COVID Response'. This initiative is necessary when the restrictions will ease, with limited lockdowns and boundary reopening.  

Australia's COVID situation

On Wednesday, Australia reported nearly 1,681 new locally obtained COVID instances, with 17 from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). New South Wales (NSW), the most populated state in Australia, with Sydney as its capital, confirmed 1,035 instances, whereas Victoria recorded 628. In the last 24 hours, Queensland has seen one new COVID instance.

As per the latest COVID numbers provided by the Worldometer, the total number of confirmed viral cases in Australia is 90,391 whereas the total number of fatalities due to COVID-19 is 1,186. Over 68,054 have been recovered from the disease. The number of active cases in the nation is 21,151 with 292 in critical condition.     

(Image: AP/ Pixabay)