Children from five to 11 years old will be eligible to begin receiving Covid-19 vaccine doses this week in Berlin, health officials have said, joining other German states in opening up appointments to younger children.
The children in that age group will be able to get a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot in Berlin's mass vaccination centres in schools, doctors' surgeries and even at the city's Natural History Museum.
The news comes after Germany's independent vaccination advisory panel said on Thursday it was recommending vaccination for children aged five to 11 with pre-existing conditions or who are in close contact with vulnerable people.
Children in this age group should receive two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine three to six weeks apart, the panel said.
The panel, known by its German acronym STIKO, added that young children without pre-existing conditions could be vaccinated if there was an "individual desire" to do so - a step short of advising that all children in that age group get the jabs.
Healthcare staff in England are reported to have been told to start preparing for the mass vaccination of primary school childern in anticipation of approval by regulators.
However Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said today that the JCVI is still looking at the evidence as to what level of protection it would offer those children.
Top government officials in Germany have pushed to make the vaccine available for younger children across the country.
"For many five- to 11-year-old children and their families, this is a huge relief," incoming families minister Anne Spiegel told the Funke media group in an interview published on Sunday.
Other German states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamburg and Bavaria, will also make vaccines available to this age group in the coming days.
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