Health Canada has authorized the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in children.
Canada is expecting an accelerated delivery of 2.9 million child-sized doses of the vaccine, enough for a first dose for every child in the five to 11 age group.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech say the results of their trials in children show comparable safety and efficacy results to those recorded in a previous study in adults aged 16 to 25.
Health Canada has authorized a two-dose regimen of 10 micrograms to be administered three weeks apart, which is a lower dose than the 30 micrograms two-dose regimen authorized for people 12 years of age and older.
Clinical trial showed that the immune response in children 5 to 11 years of age was comparable to the immune response in people 16 to 25 years of age. The vaccine was 90.7 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19 in children 5 to 11 years of age and no serious side effects were identified.