The Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna was approved for use in Canada on Thursday in children aged six months to five years.
With 38 million people living in Canada, this implies that 1.7 million kids are now eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccination.
“Health Canada has decided that the benefits of this vaccination for children between the age of 6 months and 5 years of age exceed the possible hazards,” the agency said in a statement.
The efficacy of the regimen for young children was shown in clinical studies to be comparable to that seen in persons between the ages of 18 and 25.
Patricia Gauthier, president of Moderna’s Canadian division, said, “With this announcement, parents and caregivers now have an option to protect these very young children, a group at high risk of infection and where additional health prevention measures like wearing masks may not always be feasible.”
The Moderna vaccination for adults was given the all-clear in Canada a year and a half ago.
In June, the United States began its immunisation programme for kids under five.
Ottawa resumed the program’s mandated random Covid-19 testing on Thursday after stopping it last month. The four largest airports in the country are those in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos stated in a statement that “we need to maintain border testing procedures since it is how we track imports of the Covid-19 virus, and of new strains of concern.”
Anyone who tests positive is required to be alone for 10 days.
