The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized on Monday Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for use in children aged 12.

The US regulators said that children could begin receiving shots as soon as Thursday. The vaccine has already been available to people as young as 16 in the US. The FDA said that about 1.5 million cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in individuals 11 to 17 years of age between March 2020 and April this year.

"Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic. 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 authorizations," Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said.

FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks said that the FDA can assure the public and medical community that the available data 'meet our rigorous standards to support the emergency use of this vaccine in the adolescent population 12 years of age and older.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden termed it 'a promising development in our fight against the virus', Al Jazeerareported.

Last week, Canada became the first country to authorize the use of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 12 and 15.