Children aged five to 11 in Scotland are the latest to be offered a Covid vaccine, adding to pressure on Boris Johnson to make the same decision in England.
Nicola Sturgeon said on Wednesday Scotland would follow Wales in accepting the recommendations from the independent Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
The JCVI which submitted its verdict to ministers more than a week ago but it has yet to be published.
While Scotland and Wales have now acted on the advice, England has not.
Instead the prime minister is expected to wait until next Wednesday to expand the vaccination programme, when he is due to confirm all domestic Covid rules will be scrapped.
A government spokesperson said: “We are reviewing the JCVI’s advice as part of wider decision-making ahead of the publication of our long-term strategy for living with Covid. More detail will be set out shortly.”
The UK medical regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in children in that age group last year.
The MHRA announced in December that a special “paediatric formulation” of the Pfizer vaccine was safe for use among children aged five to 11.
The JCVI then said that the vaccine could be offered to “at risk” children in this age group, but reserved its decision on wider use among that age group.
Children aged five to 11 will be offered a much lower dose of the vaccine than what is offered to adults or children aged 12 and over.
They will be offered a 10 micrograms dose compared with 30 micrograms.