Federal regulators authorized a coronavirus booster shot Tuesday for school-aged children, making a third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine available to 5-to-11-year-olds as cases rise nationally.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared the booster for use at least five months after children are fully vaccinated with the two-shot primary series.

DA Commissioner Robert M. Califf said in a statement that while covid-19 tends to be less severe in children, the wave of infections caused by the omicron variant has resulted “in more children getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease.” He said the agency was authorizing the booster to provide continued protection.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled tomeet Thursday and are expected to recommend the booster, which was shown in laboratory tests to strengthen children’s immune defenses — particularly against the omicron variant.

The shot from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, is the only vaccine available to children in this age group, and two shots have provided disappointing protection to children in this age group in real-world studies. Protection against both infections and hospitalizations waned quickly in children. FULL STORY HERE