The use of bivalent COVID-19 vaccines that target both the original COVID-19 virus and Omicron sub-variants, has been expanded to include children aged 6 months to 5 years by the US CDC.
The expansion comes a day after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the bilvalent COVID-19 vaccine shots developed by Pfizer/BioNTech as well as Moderna for use in children aged 6 months to 5 years.
Two months after receiving their last primary COVID-19 vaccination, children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years old will now be eligible to receive the bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccine, which was developed by Moderna. For children aged 6 months to 4 years who have not completed their primary COVID-19 vaccinations, the updated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech will be used as the third dose only.
The last batch of COVID-19 vaccines that could be given to young children in the United States had not been approved until June 2022, making them eligible for the vaccine. According to data from the CDC, as of December 7, 2022, only 2.9% of children under the age of two and 5% of children between the ages of two and four who are eligible for the vaccines had completed their primary vaccination.
