UK approves Moderna vaccine for 12-17 age group

Britain's health regulator has approved Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 17 years.

The approval comes more than two months after Pfizer and German partner BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine got regulatory nod for use in children aged 12 to 15.

Moderna's vaccine was recommended for use in adolescents by European regulators in July and is awaiting US authorisation.

It is currently approved for people over the age of 18 in the UK.

Britain's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) gave the go-ahead on August 4 for 16 and 17-year-olds to get their first dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine ahead of schools returning in September.

JCVI will make a decision on whether the vaccine will be deployed or not.