Drugmaker Pfizer announced Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine was safe, well-tolerated and had a "robust antibody response" in its pediatric trial for children ages 5 through 11.

The chairman and CEO said the company now plans to submit the results to the Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible to seek emergency use authorization for that age group.

As of now, 12 is the youngest age approved for the vaccine.

Here on Long Island, doctors say getting that younger school-age population vaccinated is key to stopping outbreaks.

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"In the country right now, we have an increase of 240% of children who are getting infected with COVID because there are so many pockets of unvaccinated individuals and they're not using masks or infection prevention policies in schools, and we're seeing the ramifications of that. So, it's so important that if we want to start undoing all of these infection prevention policies that we've had to put in place that we need to get the school-age group vaccinated," says Dr. Mundeep Kainth, of Cohen Children's Medical Center.

According to Pfizer, the pediatric dose is one-third what adults are getting.

It is still a two-dose vaccine that is administered 21 days apart.

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