The White House told governors to start preparing to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early next month in anticipation of clearance of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for the age group in the coming weeks, a White House official said.

The Biden administration has purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate the estimated 28 million children who would be eligible should the Food and Drug Administration approve Pfizer’s request to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11, said an official of the Department of Health and Human Services…

In anticipation of the FDA green light, the administration has begun planning for the vaccination effort with states, pharmacies and medical groups. The administration told providers in a planning document last week that the vaccine for children will be delivered to thousands of sites within a week of FDA authorization.