Washington, May 13 (IANS): A panel of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has endorsed using the Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as 12 years.

In a tweet on Wednesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the Cetre now recommends the Pfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine be used for vaccinating children from 12-15 year age group, reports Xinhua news agency.

"Getting your adolescent vaccinated means they can return to social activities faster. It also gives you peace of mind knowing your family is protected," she said.

The Pfizer vaccine has been in use in the US for months for people 16 years and older.

The US Food and Drug Administration authorised its use for those as young as 12 earlier this week.

Pfizer is the first vaccine manufacturer to gain emergency use authorisation for younger Americans after it demonstrated in a March clinical trial that its jab was 100 per cent effective in preventing the disease among study participants who were aged between 12 to 15.

In the Pfizer study, there were no positive cases among volunteers given the two-shot vaccination compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots.

Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults.

Side effects of the vaccine for adolescents are the same as for adults.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also endorsed the Pfizer vaccine for the 12-and-up crowd on Wednesday.