Top U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday that he hopes U.S. regulators could as soon as the middle of August to start granting full approval for the use of COVID-19 vaccines, which already are authorized on an emergency basis.

Formal approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would give physicians the ability to prescribe a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to people with weakened immune systems on an off-label basis, Fauci said during an interview with Reuters.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE as well as Moderna Inc have filed with the FDA to ask for full approval for their two-dose vaccines. Johnson & Johnson Inc has not yet requested full approval for its one-dose COVID-19 shot.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the White House, said full approval by the FDA could also help spur more Americans to get the COVID-19 vaccine as it might reduce their fears about the safety of the shot and make local officials more comfortable about implementing vaccine mandates.

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