California will become the first US state to mandate statewide Covid-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren as early as January, Governor Gavin Newsom said today.
But first the US Food and Drug Administration must fully approve inoculations for their age groups, he said. The Democrat made the announcement at a news briefing at a school in San Francisco as the United States remains a few hundred deaths shy of 700,000 Covid fatalities.
Several large school districts in California, the most populous US state, already mandate Covid-19 vaccines for some students.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's largest, requires them for children over the age of 12, for whom the FDA has authorised their emergency use.