Health Canada has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children ages five to 11.

Dr. Supriya Sharma, Chief Medical Adviser with Health Canada says they reviewed clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine in that age group and to monitor for possible adverse reactions.

Dr. Sharma says the immune response to the vaccine were comparable to the vaccine in adults and adverse health reactions were minor.

She says the main adverse events were similar to those in adults and teens, but were less frequent. Among the 3,100 vaccine recipients, there were four reports of serious adverse events that were ultimately determined to be unrelated to vaccination.