The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) is planning to quickly issue a recommendation for vaccinations against the coronavirus for parents of small children under the age of five. A result of the consultations is "expected in the next few weeks," said Stiko member Fred Zepp, a pediatrician at the University of Mainz, in the newspapers of the Funke media group.

The EU medicines agency EMA cleared the way for two corona vaccines for babies from six months on Wednesday. With the vaccines from the manufacturers Pfizer/Biontech or Moderna, such children could also be protected from corona infection, the EMA announced in Amsterdam. Both vaccines were already approved for adults and children aged five and six years respectively.

According to Zepp, the vaccination recommendation for slightly older children between the ages of five and eleven years is having an effect: "Almost every fourth child between the ages of five and eleven years has now been vaccinated against Covid-19 at least once."

The Stiko does not see "so far in small children a high burden of disease due to the omicron variant". Since many children have already been infected with Omicron, they are "well protected by the combination of a single vaccination and infection this fall and winter," Zepp told the newspapers.