The Canadian Ministry of Health approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine today for use in children aged six months to four years.

The federal administration says, after a comprehensive and independent scientific review of the evidence, that it has concluded that the benefits of Pfizer-BioNTech's Comirnaty vaccine outweigh the potential risks to children.

It is the second vaccine approved for this age group, after the Canadian Ministry of Health approved the Moderna Spikevax dose in July.

The Canadian Ministry of Health says it approves a series of three initial doses of the vaccine for children under five years old, with three weeks between the first and second doses and eight weeks between the second and third doses.

The government recently approved the latest version of the Moderna vaccine targeting the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but it has not yet been approved for use in the younger group.