The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended shortening the interval between the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine and the booster dose from six to five months.
The move comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided on Monday to reduce the interval of the booster dose and authorize the use of a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12-15 years of age.
The CDC has also recommended that children moderately or severely immunosuppressed ages 5 to 11 receive an additional dose of the vaccine 28 days after their second injection.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, cleared by the FDA in late October last year, is the only vaccine available to children ages 5 to 11 in the United States.
The CDC has not changed the recommendation of the booster interval for people who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or that of Modern, which is still two and six months respectively.
