MDH recommends providers wait until later in week for COVID-19 vaccinations for kids ages 12-15

U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine on Monday for 12 to 15-year-olds.

The next step in the roll-out process comes Wednesday when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting in Atlanta, Ga.

"Our recommendation from the health department is that providers would wait to start vaccinating to until Thursday until they have the full ACIP recommendations to help guide their decision making," said Kris Ehresmann, with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Ehresmann expects the ACIP to sign off on the vaccine and offer more specific guidance for the 12 to 15-year-olds who sometimes receive other vaccines during that time.

Pfizer COVID-19 shot expanded to US children as young as 12

"We want to make sure we have that information — they may in fact say it’s fine to receive a COVID vaccine, even if you recently got another booster," Ehresmann said. "That’s the specific guidance for the health care providers that we’re really interested in."

State health officials suggest parents checking with providers as to when they plan to offer the vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds.

Pfizer told ABC News that this new age group would require two shots, like adults.

According to an FDA news release, the most commonly reported side effects in the adolescent clinical trial participants, which typically lasted one to three days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever, and joint pain.

With the exception of pain at the injection site, more adolescents reported these side effects after the second dose than after the first dose, according to the FDA.

MDH will begin next week keeping track of vaccination data for the new 12 to 15-year-old age group.