The use of the Pfizer vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 has been approved in South Korea due to the outbreak of the Omicron coronavirus strain.
Children would be given two injections with an interval of three weeks.
This was announced on Wednesday by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
“Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved the use of the imported Pfizer Korea ‘Comirnaty 0.1 mg/ml (for children 5-11 years)’ vaccine for people 5-11 years old,” the ministry said in a statement.
Pfizer submitted for the permit on February 4 after studying the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
It was approved for use in two doses for one person at a dosage of 0.1 milligrams per milliliter by the ministry.
A booster dose would be given four weeks following the second shot to those with critically poor immunity, according to the statement.
The decision was made due to an increase in COVID-19 instances as a result of the Omicron variant’s distribution and the risk of severe coronavirus cases among children, according to the statement.
Since the start of the pandemic, South Korea has seen 2,329,182 COVID-19 cases, with 969,524 recoveries and 7,607 fatalities.
COVID-19 has already been immunized against 58.6% of the country’s population with a booster vaccination dose.