Dozens of schools across NSW,Victoria and the ACT have been forced to temporarily close after becoming exposure sites since the state and territory governments began to ease restrictions and live with COVID-19.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said TGA approval brought kids aged five to 11 “a step closer” to receiving a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine.

“We will act on medical advice to ensure all those who wish to receive a vaccine will have the opportunity to do so,wherever they are across Australia.”

The TGA approval comes as 13 cases of the Omicron variant had been confirmed in NSW,as well as one in the ACT. No cases have yet been confirmed in Victoria.

The child-specific Pfizer vaccine has 10 micrograms of mRNA in each shot rather than the 30 micrograms administered to adults. The doses are expected to arrive in Australia in the days before Christmas and will be batch-tested by the TGA before the rollout starts.

The children’s vaccines are in different packaging and the vials have orange caps,rather than purple or grey ones,as an additional safeguard against mix-ups.

While the NSW and Victorian governments have been calling for the rollout to be brought forward,ATAGI has said itwanted more real-world data from the United States before the rollout began.

Approval will be welcomed by parents of children in the five to 11 age group:83 per cent of parents said they were likely to get their kids jabbed once a vaccine was approved and available,according to theResolve Political Monitor survey.

Approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for children,which is for six to 11-year-olds,is also expected by the end of the year and a supply arrangement for this vaccine has been struck with the company.

South Australia tightened its entry requirements for people from those three states and territories on Saturday but resisted – for now – shutting its recently reopened borders,even as Premier Steven Marshall claimed the new variant was a “game changer”.

However,vaccine experts have said there is no reason,yet,to bring forward the rollout of booster shots because of the Omicron variant as more information is needed about the new strain.

Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly said there are still three main questions about the new variant that are still being examined:is it transmissible,is it more serious,and do vaccines still work?

Health experts around the world are scrambling to discover the answers to those questions,which will shape the public health response to the variant,over the coming days and weeks and the World Health Organisation spokesperson Margaret Harris stressed on Saturday that Omicron was a “variant of concern,not a variant of panic”.

Queensland,though,announced it would send anyone who has been in Adelaide since November 28 into a mandatory 14-day quarantine from 1am on Sunday.

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