The US has authorised the Pfizer vaccine โปรโมชั่น slotxo for 12- to 15-year-olds amid a push to get the shot into more Americans' arms.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was "a significant step in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic".

FDA Commissioner Dr Janet Woodcock said the move was aimed at "bringing us close to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic".

Some 260 million doses have been given in the US, but demand has been falling.

Ms Woodcock added in her statement: "Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our Covid-19 vaccine emergency use authorisations."

Successful trial

Monday's announcement expands an emergency use authorisation that already allowed the Pfizer jab to be administered to people as young as 16 in the US.

The decision follows a clinical trial by Pfizer and BioNTech involving 2,260 children aged 12-15. The participants received either two doses of the vaccine, or a placebo.

There were 18 cases of symptomatic coronavirus infection in the placebo group and none among the children who received the vaccine, found the trial.

The FDA's seal of approval is not the final regulatory hurdle. An advisory panel of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will review the data soon.

Immunisations could begin straight away if, as expected, the CDC committee approves the vaccine's use in adolescents.