Canada becomes first country to allow Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12-15

Canada on Wednesday became the first nation in the world to authorize the use of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15, describing the move as a light at the end of the tunnel.

Supriya Sharma, a senior adviser at the Canadian federal health ministry, said the Pfizer vaccine, produced with German partner BioNTech SE, was safe and effective in the younger age group. “We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” she told reporters. A health ministry spokesman confirmed Canada was the first country to allow children of those ages to receive the Pfizer medicine.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to take a similar step “very soon,” U.S. health officials said.

Separately, authorities reported the third death of a Canadian from a rare blood clot condition after receiving AstraZeneca PLC’s’s COVID-19 vaccine. The man, who was in his sixties, lived in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.

Jennifer Russell, the chief medical officer of health in New Brunswick, said the province would continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine. Alberta reported a death from clotting on Tuesday and Quebec announced one on April 27.