The measure comes after the United States decided to authorize the use of a third dose for children between 12 and 15 years old.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States recommended on Tuesday to shorten the interval between the second dose of the vaccine for COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech and the booster dose six to five months.
The move comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided Monday to reduce the booster dose interval and authorize the use of a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 12 to 15.
The CDC has also recommended that moderately or severely immunosuppressed children ages 5 to 11 receive an additional dose of the vaccine 28 days after their second injection.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, cleared by the FDA in late October last year, is the only vaccine available to children ages 5 to 11 in the United States.
The CDC has not changed the recommendation of the booster interval for people who have received the Johnson & Johnson or Moderna vaccine, which is still two and six months respectively.
They estimate that omicron represents 95.4% of the variants of coronavirus in the country
The omicron variant is estimated to have accounted for 95.4% of coronavirus strains circulating in the United States since Jan. 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday.
The variant has spread rapidly across the country since its detection on Dec. 1, replacing delta as the dominant strain and causing a new wave of infections that brought daily cases closer to a million on Monday.
The CDC said the variant accounted for 77% of cases in the week ending Dec. 25, up from 58.6% expected last week.
The fast-spreading variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November and has spread around the world rapidly since then, although indications that it may cause milder symptoms than previous strains have offered some relief.
Last week, the CDC lowered its estimate of omicron cases for the week ended December 18 to 22% from 73%, citing additional data and discrepancies caused by the rapid spread of the variant.
The delta variant accounts for 4.6% of all COVID-19 cases in the United States as of January 1, according to CDC data.
