Children as young as five will be able to get a COVID-19 jab from January following final approval from Australia’s immunisation advisory body.
The federal government has accepted the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation’s recommendation to expand the jab program to children aged between five and 11.
“This will bring great relief to so many mums and dads, who now have a choice on what’s best for their kids,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.
“They can have peace of mind knowing this has the tick from the best medical regulators in the world.”
The vaccines to be made available to about 2.27 million children contain one-third of the standard Pfizer dose.
Bookings will open in late December and jabs will be rolled out from January 10 following child-specific training for healthcare workers and batch testing by the medicines regulator.
