France starts vaccinating children as governments race to contain Omicron surge

Paris: France on Wednesday started vaccinating children from the age of five as governments scramble to contain fresh virus surges driven by the Omicron variant.

French health workers began administering Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to children aged between five and 11 in the government's latest step to combat a fresh wave of cases. The move came just two days after the national health regulator, the Haute



Autorité de Santé (HAS), gave the green light to the vaccine elaborated by US-based Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech.

Finland also revealed plans to expand its vaccination programme to children aged between five and 12, a day after announcing bars must close at 9 pm on Christmas Eve as part of new restrictions to fight record Covid infection levels.