Associated Press

MISSION, Kan. — Parents, schools and vaccine clinics rushed to begin inoculating younger adolescents Tuesday after U.S. regulators endorsed Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, a decision seen as a breakthrough in allowing classroom instruction to resume safely around the country.

A handful of cities started offering shots to children ages 12 to 15 less than a day after the Food and Drug Administration gave the vaccine emergency use authorization for that age group. Most communities were waiting for a federal advisory committee that meets Wednesday to sign off on the move, while anxious families called clinics and pharmacies to ask about the soonest appointments.

In Atlanta, 12-year-old Jane Ellen Norman got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Tuesday morning. The girl said she looked forward to having “a little bit more freedom.”

Her mother, English Norman, said she also booked an appointment for her 14-year-old son immediately after learning that the FDA on Monday had declared the vaccine safe for the nearly 17 million 12- to 15-year-olds in the U.S. Now, the entire family — including Norman’s husband, a physician, and their 17-year-old son — has begun the vaccination process.

“We’re five for five,” the 52-year-old artist said.

Most COVID-19 vaccines worldwide have been authorized for adults. Pfizer’s vaccine is being used in multiple countries for teens as young as 16, and Canada recently became the first to expand use to children 12 and up. Parents, school administrators and public health officials elsewhere have eagerly awaited approval for the shot to be made available to more young people.

The official sign-off on the vaccine’s use in the 12-15 age group will not occur until at least Wednesday, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee meets. Local governments that began offering shots right away viewed the FDA decision on Monday as enough of a green light to start the process.

“Under all relevant legal authority, once the FDA gives approval, a prescriber is permitted to prescribe the vaccine,” Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County, said as shots for residents 12 and up started Tuesday.

In the Kansas City area, Children’s Mercy Hospital has run vaccine clinics for 16- to 21-year-olds since last month and plans to expand them to cover the younger ages soon. Dr. Ryan McDonough, a pediatrician who oversees the COVID-19 vaccine clinics, said he has been deluged with calls from patients and texts from friends and relatives wanting to sign up their kids.

“It is about getting back to normal,” McDonough said. “It is about getting their kid in school five days a week. It is about going to see grandma and grandpa. It is about getting back to sports. It is all about normalcy, and people just want to get back to pre-pandemic life.”

The Iowa-based grocery store chain Hy-Vee, which has 278 stores in eight Midwestern states, was looking to begin offering the vaccine to the younger adolescents as soon as Thursday. Interest has been strong among parents, who deluged stores with calls and emails after the FDA signed off on the vaccine, Hy-Vee spokesperson Christina Gayman said.

“Some people tried to go ahead and go online and make an appointment,” she said. “But we at this time have let those individuals know, ‘Hey, we cannot vaccinate that age group just yet.'”

Chicago, meanwhile, said it was ready to begin vaccinating people between 12 and 15 but would wait until Thursday to start administering shots.

The city’s public health commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, noted that the communities with the lowest vaccination rates continue to have the highest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and rates of hospitalization and death — even in teens and young adults.

“Help us increase vaccine uptake and get past COVID by bringing your whole family to get vaccinated together,” Arwady urged in a news release.