The move will help protect junior and senior high school students from COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, as the administration of President
The regimen of two doses administered three weeks apart of the vaccine developed by the
Safety data has been collected through a clinical trial in
Among participants without evidence of prior infection with the virus, no cases of COVID-19 occurred among 1,005 vaccine recipients and 16 infection cases occurred among 978 individuals who received dummy shots.
"The vaccine was 100 percent effective in preventing COVID-19," the FDA said in its press release, adding that the known and potential benefits of the vaccine in individuals 12 years of age and older outweigh the known and potential risks.
The most commonly reported side effects in the clinical trial participants, typically lasting one to three days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever and joint pain. With the exception of injection site pain, more adolescents reported the side effects after the second dose than after the first dose, the FDA said.
From
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was initially granted an emergency use authorization in December for administration in individuals 16 years of age and older.
In
==Kyodo
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