The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for Filipinos aged five to 11.

FDA chief Eric Domingo made the announcement on Thursday in a “Laging Handa” briefing.

“Nakita naman po talaga natin na it is reasonable to believe that the vaccine may be effective to prevent Covid-19 and the benefits of vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks,” he said.

Domingo said the Pfizer vaccine had an efficacy rate of 90 percent or more for kids aged five to 11.

The vaccine’s clinical trials only showed mild adverse effects in some participants, he added.

The dosage of the Pfizer vaccine for the younger age group will be less than the dosage for adults.

The government had been eyeing to expand vaccination to younger age groups to help the country achieve herd immunity.

As of Dec. 22, more than 104 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the Philippines.

Over 46 million have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. John Ezekiel J. Hirro