Pharmacy Drawer Shanan Beasley draws the COVID-19 vaccine out of a vial at Katherine R. Smith Elementary School in San Jose, Calif. in 2021. As the state braces for the new EG.5 variant, experts say a new vaccine will be available in the fall to address the new variant. (Harika Maddala/ Bay City News)

An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously voted Wednesday to recommend approval of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 5.

The FDA is expected to approve both vaccines soon for children who are at least 6 months old and younger than 5. An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is also expected to consider recommending approval of the vaccines for young children.

If approved by head FDA and CDC officials, toddlers and young children could become eligible for the vaccine as soon as next week.

While both vaccines have been administered in two-dose regimens for people age 5 and up, Pfizer has proposed a three-dose series over roughly three months for children under 5 while Moderna’s trials focused on a two-dose series.

The approval of both vaccines would come as an emergency use authorization.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently approved under an Emergency Use Authorization for everyone ages 5-15 and fully approved and marketed as Comirnaty for everyone ages 16 and up.

The Moderna vaccine has also been fully approved for all adults and is marketed as Spikevax.