The lowering of age limit for receiving the BioNTech vaccine to 12 was approved by secretary for food and health Sophia Chan Siu-chee today.
Relevant arrangements for providing the vaccines to teenagers aged between 12 and 15 will be announced early next week.
The application was earlier submitted to the Advisory Panel on Covid-19 Vaccines by the Department of Health, along with relevant clinical trial data. After scrutinising relevant data, the panel advised the health chief to approve the application.
The health chief considered that the benefits of lowering the age limit for receiving BioNTech vaccines outweigh the risks, after taking the advice of the panel and threat posed to the public by Covid-19 into account.
The arrangement can both protect teens from being infected and enable them to resume normal school and daily life as soon as possible, according to the government.
The application was earlier submitted to the Advisory Panel on Covid-19 Vaccines by the Department of Health, along with relevant clinical trial data. After scrutinising relevant data, the panel advised the health chief to approve the application.
The health chief considered that the benefits of lowering the age limit for receiving BioNTech vaccines outweigh the risks, after taking the advice of the panel and threat posed to the public by Covid-19 into account.
The arrangement can both protect teens from being infected and enable them to resume normal school and daily life as soon as possible, according to the government.