This photo shows a view of vials of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, at the Assad Iben El Fourat school in Oued Ellil, outside Tunis on Aug 15, 2021. (HASSENE DRIDI / AP)

ADDIS ABABA / STOCKHOLM - US Food and Drug Administration staff reviewers on Friday said Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine appears safe and effective for use in children aged 6 months to 17 years old as a committee of scientists will meet next week to vote on whether to recommend the regulator authorize the vaccine in children.

The FDA's reviewers said in briefing documents published on Friday evening that the vaccine had generated a similar immune response in the children than that observed in adults in previous trials.

"Available data support the effectiveness of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in pediatric age groups from 6 months through 17 years of age," the FDA staff said.

The FDA staff also said the vaccine generally had a similar side effect profile in children as seen in adults, although younger children had fevers more frequently.

Both of the messenger RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have been linked to rare instances of a type of heart inflammation called myocarditis, particularly in young men.

The FDA said myocarditis is a known risk associated with the vaccine, but that the drugmaker's pediatric trials were not large enough to quantify the frequency of the rare heart inflammation in pediatric age groups.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is already authorized in the U..for people aged 5 and older. The US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) said in May that reports of myocarditis after that vaccine have been much lower in 5- to 11-year-old boys than in adolescents and young men, representing only a slightly elevated rate than normal.

A medical worker shows a vial of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 13, 2021. (MICHAEL TEWELDE / XINHUA)

Ethiopia

The Ethiopian government has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign to boost inoculations and control the spread of the pandemic.

State-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate, citing Dereje Duguma, Ethiopia's State Minister of Health, reported on Saturday that the number of infected people who are going to the Intensive Care Unit has been increasing over the past month in Ethiopia.

The state minister said that the dynamic nature of the virus coupled with lax precautionary measures by citizens are the major factors exacerbating the infection rate during the past month.

The East African country, which has so far administered more than 29.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, reported 736 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the national count to 477,742 as of Saturday as the death toll stood at 7,516, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health.

Empty check-in counters are seen at the international terminal of Arlanda airport on March 16, 2020, where air traffic slowed down due to the spread of COVID-19. (JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP)

Sweden

Inbound traffic to the main international airport of the Swedish capital was diverted on Saturday as the main terminal was overcrowded with massive queues at the security gates.

Already at 4:30 am, road traffic to Terminal 5 of Stockholm Arlanda International Airport was temporarily diverted. Later, it was decided that the express train between Stockholm City and Arlanda Airport would not stop at the terminal, Swedish Television (SVT) reported.

According to Swedavia, the company that runs Arlanda Airport, the congestion is due to a sharp increase in passenger numbers following the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, the company has had trouble recruiting and training staff to man the security gates. The security vetting of new employees is another bottleneck.

Although this has been a problem for the last few weeks, the situation was extraordinary on Saturday and Swedavia predicted that the congestion would persist.

"There will be a high load on Arlanda this summer. If you can check-in digitally, you should do so. Otherwise, it is good to keep track of when your airline opens the check-in," David Karlsson at Swedavia's press department told SVT.

"We have seen that people are here 6-8 hours before their flight leaves, long before the check-in opens. And this worsens the congestion," he said.