NEW YORK: American children younger than 5 may be able to receive initial COVID vaccine doses as soon as June 21, the White House said Thursday, but the timeline is contingent on authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“We expect that vaccinations will begin in earnest as early as Tuesday, June 21, and really roll on throughout that week,” Dr. Aashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, said in a news conference.

“Our expectation is that within weeks, every parent who wants their child to get vaccinated will be able to get an appointment,” he added.

He emphasized that the planned rollout would also rely on a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) supporting the shots.

The doses would be specially formulated for young kids, Jha said.

Many parents have been itching for months to get shots into children’s arms.

In the fall, the FDA authorized the use of vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11.

“I want to be very clear that I am not here to prejudge the outcome of the process,” Jha said of the authorization for younger kids. “But the administration is hard at work planning all sorts of scenarios based on whatever the outcome is from the process.”