Pfizer said today its COVID-19 vaccine works for children ages 5 to 11 and it will seek U.S. authorization for this age group soon. The vaccine  was the first vaccine declared safe for children 12 and older. For elementary school-aged kids Pfizer BioNTech tested a much lower dose which was a third of the amount that is in each shot given now. The antibody responses in the participants with that lesser amount were comparable to those recorded in a previous Pfizer-BioNTech study in people 16 to 25 years of age. The company says the lesser dose was carefully selected as the preferred dose for safety, tolerability and immunogenicity in children 5 to 11 years of age. These are the first results from a trial of a COVID-19 vaccine in this age group.

“Over the past nine months, hundreds of millions of people ages 12 and older from around the world have received our COVID-19 vaccine. We are eager to extend the protection afforded by the vaccine to this younger population, subject to regulatory authorization, especially as we track the spread of the Delta variant and the substantial threat it poses to children,” said Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer. “

Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech says the safety profile and immunogenicity data in children aged 5 to 11 years vaccinated at a lower dose are consistent with those  observed with the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine in other older populations at a higher dose.

Bourla notes that since July, pediatric cases of COVID-19 have risen by about 240 percent in the U.S.