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The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a Pfizer-BioNTech booster in adolescents 12 to 15 years old. The agency on Monday also shortened the time between the completion of primary vaccination of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and a booster dose to five months from six. Finally, the FDA allowed for a third dose of vaccine in immunocompromised children 5 to 11 years of age. (Hensley and Hernandez, 1/3)

A panel of vaccine experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to meet Wednesday to discuss the FDA’s authorization. Many doctor’s offices, schools and other vaccination sites could start providing the shots to adolescents if the panel and then the CDC director sign off. There should be sufficient supply, since the adolescents get the same dose already in use. (Hopkins, 1/3)

The number of children hospitalized with Covid-19 is soaring nationwide, especially as the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country. According to an NBC News analysis, at least nine states have reported record numbers of Covid-related pediatric hospitalizations: Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Washington, D.C. (Edwards, 1/3)

At Texas Children's Hospital, 4-month-old Graysen Perry has Covid-19 and is struggling to breathe. His mom, Gayvielle Goff, is struggling to talk. "It's just really scary," Goff said, trying to suppress tears. At the same Houston hospital, 17-year-old Halie Mulanax is fighting Covid-19 on a ventilator. She's never seen her 3-week-old baby because she's been in a medically induced coma for almost a month. Across the country, hospitals are grappling with an unprecedented surge of children with Covid-19 -- fueled by holiday gatherings and the highly contagious Delta and Omicron variants. (Marquez and Yan, 1/4)

Michigan broke yet another pandemic record Monday as the state health department reported 96 kids are hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19. The majority of those hospitalized children — 60 — are from Healthcare Coalition Region 2 South, which includes 2.2 million people living in Monroe, Washtenaw and Wayne counties and includes the city of Detroit. The sudden rise in pediatric hospitalizations from the virus surpassed the previous pandemic peak of 71 set on April 20 and comes as the highly transmissible omicron variant gains ground in the state — driving yet another surge on the heels of a brutal monthslong wave brought on by the delta variant. (Jordan Shamus, 1/3)