?Provisional approval?: Australian children aged five to 11 set to receive Pfizer Covid vaccine from mid-January

Australian children aged five to 11 could receive the Pfizer vaccine against Covid as soon as 10 January, following provisional approval by the country's drugs regulator.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) green light, announced by the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, on Sunday will likely be followed by an independent recommendation from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) to use the vaccine in that age group.

Hunt told reporters the provisional approval was "about keeping our kids safe, keeping our families safe, keeping all Australians safe".

"From 10 January, Australian children will have access to Pfizer vaccines, and it is recommended for children right across Australia," he said in Melbourne.

Hunt said the TGA was also considering children's doses of Moderna, the other mRNA vaccine, and will form a view on that "in the coming weeks".

The head of the TGA, Prof John Skerritt, said the Pfizer vaccine had been "extensively clinically tested" including a trial of 2,500 children aged five to 11.

"The response of the body, the immune response, was identical to that in young adults," he said.