The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday lowered the age that people can receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in the United States to 12, NBC News reported.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for use in ages 16 and up in December. The FDA has now amended that authorization to include children ages 12 to 15.

The agency’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodook, called the authorization “a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The action, Woodcock wrote, “allows for a younger population to be protected from Covid-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic.”

Now that the FDA has authorized the vaccines for adolescents, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to update its recommendation for who should receive the Pfizer vaccine, reported NBC.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE said last month they have requested the FDA to expand the emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine in adolescents aged 12 to 15.

Pfizer has also begun testing its vaccine on younger children. The global study of 144 participants will also examine whether the vaccine can generate an immune response in children and determine the proper dosage for each age group in the trial: 6 months to 2 years; 2 years to 5 years; and 5 years to 11 years.