Israel plans to give Pfizer's COVID vaccine to adolescents upon FDA approval

Israel plans to give the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds upon FDA approval, the health minister said on Wednesday after the manufacturer deemed the shots safe and effective on the age group. Vaccinating at a world-beating pace, Israel has already given both Pfizer doses to more than half of its 9.3 million citizens and residents, and seen an accompanying fall in sickness.

Israel plans to give the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds upon FDA approval, the health minister said on Wednesday after the manufacturer deemed the shots safe and effective on the age group.

Vaccinating at a world-beating pace, Israel has already given both Pfizer doses to more than half of its 9.3 million citizens and residents, and seen an accompanying fall in sickness. Longer-term vaccine purchases have snagged, however, on a dispute within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet. . He pledged to resolve this on Tuesday, saying, "God willing, we will continue to be a global model of success."

"The Pfizer announcement is terrific news," Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said over social media on Wednesday. "There is nothing more in order now than a speedy approval of more vaccine procurements (by Israel), so we can be poised to vaccinate immediately upon FDA approval."

Israel has come under international criticism for not doing more to enable Palestinians living in areas it occupies to be inoculated, while its national vaccination drive has been one of the fastest and most efficient in the world. It says it has vaccinated more than 100,000 Palestinian workers with permits to enter the country or Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but that the Palestinian Authority bears overall responsibility for inoculations in self-rule areas.

(Writing by Dan Williams Editing by Jeffrey Heller, William Maclean)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)