SINGAPORE - The Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Expert Committee on Covid-19 Vaccination are currently studying the safety and effectiveness of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines in young children under the age of five.

In a statement on Monday (June 20), MOH said it would be studying the use of the Moderna vaccine in children aged six months to five years of age and that of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged six months to four years of age.

The announcement follows news last Friday that the United States' Food and Drug Administration had expanded the authorisations for the two vaccines to include children as young as six months old.

The White House said vaccinations for younger children could begin this week.

As for Singapore, MOH said it is currently engaging the vaccine manufacturers so that it could conduct a risk-benefit evaluation of the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for younger children.

Approval was given for children aged five to 11 years old to receive two paediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine in December last year.

Each dose is a third of what an adult receives.

At the time, researchers from the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and Duke-NUS Medical School also embarked on an observational study on the immune response to Covid-19 vaccines in different groups of children.

The researchers intend to study 460 participants aged five to 16 over 12 months to track immune responses to the Pfizer mRNA vaccine and vaccine efficacy, monitor side effects and detect asymptomatic Covid-19 infections in these children.