The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) has granted the approval for the use of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19 for children 12 years and older.
The health regulator said the decision came after a review of updated safety and efficacy information submitted in March this year.
This becomes the first vaccine against the virus approved for minors in the South Africa.
It comes after the first child was vaccinated with one of two doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Friday, as part of the Numolux global trial.
China’s Sinovac Biotech said that the study will evaluate the efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of the CoronaVac vaccine on children and adolescents aged 6 months to 17 years.
In South Africa, 2,000 children are part of the Sinovac vaccine global study that will include 14,000 children across the world.