More than 360,000 children under 12 have gotten at least one vaccine dose

More than 360,000 children under age 12 have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, as the country scales up pediatric vaccinations.

The preliminary data as of Monday evening shows at least 156,000 children younger than 12 have started their vaccination regimen within the past two weeks, as doses first began to become available to those within that younger age group.

Children under 12 represented 5.2 percent of those who got their first dose within the past 14 days.

Despite making up 14 percent of the American population, those younger than 12 currently make up 0.2 percent of Americans who received at least one dose, since the vaccines have only been available for days.

Follows: The CDC officially recommended the Pfizer vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds last week, marking the first time Americans younger than 12 became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.

The move, following the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization for the age group late last month, opened up vaccinations to 28 million children across the U.S.

Caveat: The CDC noted that the vaccination data was available by age for about 205 million recipients, cautioning that the numbers ”only represent the geographic areas that contributed data” and therefore are “not generalizable to the entire US population.”