It is the first COVID-19 vaccine submission Canada has received for younger children aged 5 to 11 years old.

As soon as the regulators allow to do so, providers might be able to start offering the vaccine to kids, but new child-sized dosed need to be acquired. The doses are about one-third the size given to adults and teens age 12 and up.

More than 46 million doses has been delivered to Canada to date by Pfizer, there are more than enough Pfizer doses in Canada to vaccinate kids between the ages of 5 to 11 according to an analysis of the available data from provincial and federal governments.

At a media briefing late last week, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Canada already had a stockpiled of smaller doses across the country may not be advised.

“We also understand from Pfizer that this actual formulation has shifted,” Tam said Friday. “This is a next generation formulation, so that is something that needs to be examined by the regulator.”

“Health Canada will only authorize the use of Comirnaty if the independent and thorough scientific review of all the data included in the submission showed that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the potential risks in this age group,” the statement said.

According to Tim Sly, a Ryerson University epidemiologist with expertise in risk management stating that the risk appears to be low.

“Of course, no one considers any complication in a child to be acceptable, and a tremendous amount of caution is being taken to look for and identify all problems,” said Sly in a recent email exchange with The Canadian Press.

Besides the benefits of vaccination to prevent COVID-19, the vaccine helps the children to reduce the risk of associating the virus to another and a better environment for school without stressing about transmission.